Eternally Grateful
by SunnyDee13
Summary: My best friend gave me the best advice. He said, each day is a gift, and not a given right. You have to leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind and always take the path less traveled by. That first step you take is the longest stride. Now... If only I could get him to listen to his own advice. Rated T for swearing. New chapters posted frequently.
1. Chapter 1 The First Encounter

**A/N Hello all! New story coming your way!**  
**This time, for the Avengers! I loved that movie so much!**  
**And I admitablly am a big Tom Hiddleston fangirl. 3 Ehehe!**

**This is written in first person point of view, because it is much easier for me to write in that POV then any other.**  
**Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :D**

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I was awakened by the sound of soft growls, and the feeling of my blanket being pulled off of me. The blanket soon was gone, having fallen to the floor. I rolled over in bed, and looked down. My brown Cocker Spaniel was staring up at me, the blanket in his mouth. He dropped the blanket, and then went to the foot of the bed, the tags on his collar clinking together as he walked. He grabbed his leash and brought it over to me, putting his paws up onto the bed.

"Wanna go for a walk hu Shep?" I said. I glanced over at my clock. It was about 7am. "It's a little early don't you think?" Shep gave a small cry, and nudged my arm with his nose, as if to say 'Please?'

Usually the morning walk doesn't happen this early, but I got up. I just can't say no to those blue puppy-dog eyes. I took the leash from him, and hooked it onto his collar. After I changed out of my pajamas I grabbed the leash and Shep and I went out the door.

We walked our normal route; around the corner, past the elementry school, and through the park. At the park we stopped for a bit. The morning was very peaceful, and the place was filled with the sound of chirping birds. I let Shep off his leash allowing him to go run around. He sniffed the ground, chased a few squirllels, and marked his territory on a few trees.

"That's odd." I thought. "Usually there are more dogs here in the morning..."

Every morning, even though it is a bit early, there are always a few other people with their dogs. The park was... empty. This is highly unusual.

Even Shep noticed that his dog pals wern't here. He came back over to me with a curious look, and a worried whine.

"I don't know, boy." I said to him. He jumped onto the bench I was sitting on. "This is very odd." I clipped the leash back onto his collar. "Come on. We should head back home." We got up and began walking back to the house.

As we were walking, everything felt too quiet... Far to quiet. Shep walked close to me obviously sensing the errie silence too.

We continued our walk back home when suddenly something ran right past us. It was so fast, I stumbled a bit, almost losing my balence.

"Woah!" I said. "What was that? You alright Shep?" I got no answer from him. I looked over... And he was gone!

"Ahh!" I yelled. I looked behind me, and in the distance I saw a man running hastily. Looking closer I saw... HE HAD SHEP IN HIS ARMS! I gasped, and started running after the man. "Give me back my dog!"

I continued running after the man, following him into a old warehouse. When I got inside I stopped in my trackes.

I couldn't even speak... Inside this warehouse was hundreds of cages and inside each cage was a dog. I recognized a few of them. Toby, Max, Lilly, Nina, all of them belong to friends of mine. I walked a bit further into the warehouse finding some papers on the floor. I picked them up, seeing that they from today's newspaper.

"Mysterious Dog Napper Strikes Again" Was the front page headline.

"Since last week, reports of dog nappings have incresed and are numbering in the hundreds. The culpret is still unknown as no victim has been able to provide any information. The culprets appearence, place of residence, and all other personal information is still a mystery. We advise all dog owners to keep your pets inside, and to go out only when it is needed. While outside, supervise your pet at all times."

I can't believe this... How... How could this happen? How could hundreds of dogs be stolen in such little time? How could this one person take them with out anyone even seeing thier face? This... This is madness!

I froze when I heard the sound of a dog crying in pain. The yelps were loud, and painful. They went on for a few moments and then... the crying stopped...

I dropped the papers back onto the floor. I wasn't going to stand for this. I'm going to find Shep. I'm not going to let someone waltz on by and steal my dog! All of these dogs... They need to be at home, with their families. Not in this cold dark warehouse. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I hurried over to the closest cage. Inside was a young dog that looked to be some sort of mixed breed. He had long grey fur with white on his face, and paws. He was laying in the corner, shaking. His fearful eyes stared up at me begging and pleading for help.

I looked at the lock on the cage, and it looked like some sort of puzzle. There were three dials. Each dial turned and created a different color combonition. On each dial there were 4 colors; red, blue, green and yellow.

I started messing with the lock, trying to get it off. After a few tries the lock clicked, and I took it off the cage throwing it over my shoulder. I opened the cage. The dog inside quickly got up, and ran out of his confides. He came over and licked my face; his way of saying thank you. The dog started barking.

"Shhh!" I said to him "No, no. Be quiet. Shhh." I pointed to the door of the warehouse. "Go on now, go, run!"

The dog ran out the door. Seconds after that alarms started going off.

Even with the alarms, I continued to the next cage. When I got there I saw three men running towards me.

"There she is!" One of the yelled. "Get her!"

I began panicing. How was I, a 18 year old girl, going to stand a chance against 3 fully grown men? I can't just run. I won't leave these dogs behind. Something shiny on the ground caught my eye. I looked over and saw a bow along with a quiver of arrows just sitting there. I quickly ran over to it. I picked up the bow, and an arrow. I may not have great aim, but this was the best I had. I pulled the bow back, and shot the arrow towards the men. I had aimed for it to hit one of them, but instead it hit a barrel that was next to them. Seconds later that barrel, along with the ones next to it, exploded, blowing the men off their feet and sending them flying across the room. I ducked down as debris flew through the air after the explosion. I could only imagine what damage it did to those men.

I put the quiver of arrows over my shoulder, and took the bow with me in case anymore men showed up. I continued on with my mission of helping these poor dogs. The cages all had various different locks with different puzzles. None of the were very hard, and only took me a few minutes to figure them out, some it took even less. As I released the dogs they all ran to the exit of the warehouse. I had encounters with more men and the number of them increased as time passed. The bow and arrows helped out a lot in slowing the men down, and stopping them from chasing me.

I had unlocked all the cages that I had seen, but I still didn't see Shep anywhere. I went over to the one place I hadn't been yet, and around the corner was one last cage. Inside was Shep. As I rounded the corner, he saw me and jumped on the cage. He cried out to me.

The sound of foot steps caught my attention. I put my finger to my lips telling Shep to stay quiet. I hid around the corner waiting to see who was coming. The one who came was a tall man with short grey hair. The man worn glasses, and a long white lab coat. He had an expression that just screamed "evil" and also had a devious glint in his beedly little eyes. He walked over and stood in front of Sheps cage. He looked him over while laughing quietly to himself.

Shep growled at the man while in a defensive stance. The man reached into the cage and was about to grab his ear when Shep bit the man's hand... HARD. The man yelled, and then slapped Shep with his free hand. His injured hand had visible teeth marks and blood was dripping down, falling onto the floor.

"Disobediant mutt!" The man yelled, his voice harsh. "How dare you bite your superior! Just for that, you're next!"

The man stormed away to go attend to his mutilated hand. When he left I quickly ran to Sheps cage.

"Hold on boy." I said. "I'm gonna get you outta there!"

The lock on Sheps cage was not like the others. It was a ordinary combination lock rather then a lock with a puzzle. I looked around for something I could use to break the lock off. I searched on the floor for anything that could be of use, but then I froze when I heard growling... Not Shep's growling... no. This growl sounded much more snarly. I looked up.

I was surrounded by what looked to be large, mutant, canines.

They were nearly as tall as I was, had glowing red eyes, and large muscular builds. Some of them had features of certain dog breeds, like their coloring and fur texture. One had the fur pattern of a husky, another had the coloring of a german shepard. It dawned on me in that moment of exactly what that man was doing to these dogs.

He's using them for science experiments... He's mutating them...

The mutants advanced towards me, as I scrambled to put out another arrow.

I shot a few of the canines, but to my surprise, one of them snapped my bow in half with its large powerful jaws.

"Oh hell..." I said. I dropped the broken bow on the floor and back away from the canine mutants, only to bump into one of them that was behind me. I fell to the floor, looking up at the snarling canines.

"I'm gonna get attacked!" I thought... I thought. Just when I thought I was going to be mauled by these vicious creatures someone appeared, litterally appeared out of thin air beside me. It was some man. I had no clue who he was, but he certainly wasn't like the other men who were trying to attack me earlier.

He was wearing mostly all black attire with shades of green accenting it. He had black hair which was slicked back and came to points at the bottom. He held a large staff that had a blue gem in the middle of the two sharp curves. The canines looked confused at his sudden appearence, but then growled again.

"Who are you!" I called to the man.

"That information is not important at this moment!" He replied. "Just stay down."

The man rose his staff, and shot the canines. They let out loud crys of pain before they fell dead to the floor, their blood splattering all over. One of them fell right next to me. I jumped up, away from it.

With the mutants taken care of, the man walked over to Shep's cage, and used his staff to shoot the lock off. Shep pushed his way out of the cage door, and ran over to me, knocking me back to the floor. I hugged his tightly.

When I got up to say thank you to the man... He was gone.

Where did he go?

"Come on, Shep." I said. We walked down the hallway quietly.

We approched a room to our left, which I could hear people talking in. I peeked into the room, and the man with the staff was standing over the other man. He had his staff pointed at him.

"Your experimentations are over." The black haired man said.

What happened next, I couldn't even look at. I saw the black haired man stab the scientist. I quickly turned my head away. The pained sounds that came from the man made me shiver. When he silenced, I reluctantly turned around, trying not to look at the scientist on the floor.

"Who... Who are you?" I asked again. The black haired walked over to me.

"And what does it matter to you?" He replied.

"You... You saved my life, and the life of my dog." I said. "I would certainly like to know the name of our savior..."

He stared at me for a few moments. I noticed now that his eyes were a very bright green. Very vibrent. They looked at you as if they stared straight into your soul.

"If you must know, I am Loki." He finally said.

"Well... Thank you Loki." I replied. "Thank you. I am eternily greatful. I am in you're debt."

He smirked at my words for reasons unknown to me. "Hehehe. Good to know." In the blink of an eye, he was gone again, which left me in confusion...

I didn't want to be in that warehouse any longer so I decided to just let it go.

"Come, Shep. We're going home."

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**This first part of this story is inspired by a re-occurring dream I've been having after seeing the avengers movie.**  
**My friend on DA said that it would make a cool fan fiction story, and thus, THIS WAS BORN! WOOO!**  
**PLEASE LEAVE ME A REVIEW! I NEED YOUR OPINIONS TO SURVIVE!**


	2. Chapter 2: Mischief Reappears

**A/N Oooh! Chapter 2! How exciting!**  
**This will answer any questions you have about chapter 1... hopefully!**  
**Anyway, enough of my talking, onto the story now. Yay! :D**

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When Shep and I returned home, I sat in the living room of my apartment. It was a small apartment with 2 bedrooms 1 bathroom, kitchen and living area. There's also a small yard out front, but it's shared with all of the occupants of the building. It was more then enough to suit my needs, seeing as it's only me and Shep that live here, with the exception of my friend who stays every once in a great while.

I sat on the couch, rubbing my eyes, trying to calm myself.

What the hell just happened?

I'm still so... confused. Why was that man doing experiments on innocent dogs? Who was he? More importantly, who was that mysterious man who just magically appeared out of nowhere? I know he said his name was Loki, but who was he? I know nothing about him. Why did he appear there? Why did he help me? Why did he kill that scientist? I have so many questions that I don't have the answers too. All this uncertainty makes me highly curious.

Shep whined quietly making me look up. He was pawing at the TV set.

"Tv? Really?" I said to him. He pawed at it again. "Alright, fine then." I grabbed the TV remote, pressing the power button. The TV came on with the news straight away.

"Breaking news." The news anchor said. "Athorities got an anonymus tip this morning on the wearabouts of the cultret of the recent dog nappings. When police found hundreds of dogs running through downtown it was clear that someone cared enough to save them."

I sat up, listening to the rest of the story. Footage from inside the warehouse was being shown.

"When police arrived at the scene they arrested the man inside, and took him in for questioning. No other suspects were found, and much evidence was taken from the lab. The man is expected to go to trial later today for over 200 counts of animal cruelty, and unauthorized use of hazardous materials."

What! How... how is that possible? I saw Loki kill him... how his he alive?

"All of the dogs have been rounded up, and are being held in the local pet shelter. If your pet was taken from you, please come down and claim them. We wish to see all of these animals return to their loving families."

I shut the TV off.

"No, no, no... What is happening? That man can't be alive." I said to myself. "It's impossible! Shep... I think i've gone insane..."

Shep barked. I looked ove at him, and he was staring at the front door. I walked over to the door, while he followed, and I looked through the veiwing hole.

"There's nobody there, boy." I said. His head turned back towards the living room.

"It's just the TV." I told him. "Wait... I thought I turned it off."

Shep and I shared a confused look. I then quickly ran into the living room. The TV was on... But nobody was there... I swear I turned it off. I know I did... I seriously must be going mad...

"Uuuh. I've gone crazy..."

"Crazy hardly explains it."

"AHH!" I yelled and I jumped in surprise at the voice behind me. I turned around. "It... it's you."

It was Loki... from the warehouse.

"How... How did you get here! How'd you know where I lived!" I questioned him.

"Hehehe. Questions, questions. They will all be answered in due time."

"How 'bout you answer them now before I call the police." I threatened him. "You're technically trespassing." Shep walked over by my side, and growled softly at Loki.

"I save your lives and this is how you treat me?" He replied. "You said that you are in my debt, did you not?"

"Uh... Well... um..." I couldn't even respond. He walked closer to me. Sheps growl got louder. Loki looked at him, but then continued.

"Well then. You shall do as I say, and not question it."

"Now wait a minute! Who are you to come into my house and tell me what to do?" I said.

I blinked and he was gone again, only to appear behind me. I froze in place. Loki grabbed my arms, holding them behind my back.

"Unhand me!" Shep must have noticed my struggle, as he jumped and tried to attack Loki. Something happened though, and the next thing I know, Shep yelped and was thrown halfway across the room.

"SHEP!" I tried running over to him, but Loki held me back. "Let me go damn it!" I struggled and tried to get him to release me. When I got free I rushed over to my dog. To my horror, he wasn't moving. "What have you done to him!"

"Don't worry."

"Don't worry! You hurt my dog! You asshole!" I yelled, as tears started in my eyes.

"Your love for this animal. It almost makes me feel pity for me."

"How dare you!" I growled, as I walked towards him, getting in his face. "Who the hell do you think you are!"

"Your pet is only in a temporary sleep. It'll wear off in a few hours."

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

Is it possible to cry tears of anger? Cause that's how I feel right now. I turned around, hiding my face in my hands, still crying. Loki tried putting his hand on my shoulder, but I threw it off.

"Don't touch me! Just... Get out of my house!"

Loki was about to say something but I cut him off before he could.

"Please... just go!" I said.

Again he was gone. Good. Good ridince.

I walked back over to Shep, picking him up off the floor. I carried him into the bedroom, setting him down on his dog bed. I then climbed into my bed, laying down. I wasn't tired, but I soon drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up to Shep licking my face, I had the happiest feeling. I sprang up from bed, and hugged him, petting him on his head.

"Oh Shep. Your okay... Your okay." I said. I looked at my clock. It was 2 in the afternoon...

"Of course he is. It's just like I said."

I looked towards my bedroom door.

"You again." I said to Loki. "I thought I told you to scram!"

"How rude of you to still never even simply intoduce youself."

"If you have to know, my name is Alice." I said. "Again, I though I said to get out of here!"

"And I thought you were eternally grateful?"

I got up, walking past him, and out of my room. "Don't even start with me."

I went into the kitchen, pulling out Sheps dog food bacg. At the sound of the rustling, and food hitting his bowl, he came running, and started eating as soon as I put it on the floor. I then refilled his water bowl placing it next to his food.

"What are you doing?" Loki asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Taking care of my dog. Being respectful of other beings." I said. "Which is more then I can say for you."

"Funny how you assume so much of me."

"You come into my home, trying to tell me what to do, and then you go an hurt my dog. What else do I need to know?"

"What do you want to know?" He asked.

His reply somewhat surprised me, but I took this oppertunity to question him.

"You can start by telling me who the hell you really are." I said. "I know you're not human. Noday can just magically appear and then disappear in the blink of an eye."

"I am as I said. I am Loki." He said. "God of Mischief."

"God... yeah sure. Fine, Why'd you kill that scientist at the warehouse?"

"You didn't have the desire to kill him? I know for a fact that you did."

"And how do you figure that?" I said.

"When you found out what he was doing, you were enraged, were you not?" He replied. I didn't say anything. He then continued. "Your fury radiated off of you, and when he slapped your mutt that rage level increased didn't it? I was mearly working off of your own vicious desires."

"Well, you must not be a very powerful god because that man is still alive. The police have him in custody." I stated. "...He's not dead."

"And that angers you doesn't it!" He said raising his voice.

"Alright, fine! I was angry!" I admitted, raising my voice as well. "I hate animal cruelty! I think anyone who abuses an animal should be abused themselves, just so they can know how it feels! That man deserves a much worse fate just then jail time!"

"Such passion. That is what drove you to save all of those dogs wasn't it?"

"Yes, I believe beating an animal is just as bad as beating another human! But what does it all matter to you?"

"You wanted to save them so much that you hurt people to do so." He reminded me. "How many men did you injure with that little bow and arrow of yours?"

"I may have hurt them, but what was I supposed to do! Let them catch me?" I said. "Leave those dogs to their death! I wasn't about to let them die!"

"How'd you manage to fend off so many men with a simple bow anyways?"

"I took a couple of archery lessons years ago. I'm not a professional, mind you, but when a situation calls for it, old instincts come back."

"Hum... That could make you useful."

"What are you blabbing about? What do you want with me?"

Shep, being finished with his food, looked up. He stood in front of me, staring directly at Loki.

"What I want from you..." As he spoke he walked closer until he was right in front of me. Shep stood at my side staying close to me, while still glaring up at Loki, watching all of his actions. "Is your assistance."

"Ha! What kind of God needs the assistance of others?"

"One that knows there is strength in numbers." He said. "You will join me. It may take time for you to realize it, but in the end, you with trust me."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Not a chance in hell."

He laughed. "We'll see about that."

Once again he did his disappearing act.

I looked at Shep. He was staring at me with a worried look on his face. I let out a loud sigh.

"Shep... If only you could talk. Maybe you could have helped the situation..."

What have I gotten myself into?

Later that same day I got a call from one of my friends.

"Yeah Nikki?" I said answering the phone.

"Alice! Turn on the TV, you're on the news!"

"Wha... What?"

"Channel 13!"

I rushed into the living room, turning the TV on. The news story had interupted whatever show was on at the moment.

"There has been a surprise development in the case of the recent dog nappings. The warehouse was investigated by the crime lab, and they found fingerprints and other DNA samples of a suspected accomplice in the stealing of the over 200 dogs. The DNA belongs to that of 18 year old Alice Helios." A picture of me was shown on the screen. "Police have issued a warrent for her arrest, and if you have any information regarding the wearabouts of her, please call crime-stoppers at-"

I quickly shut the TV off.

"Alice... What did you do?" Nikki asked me. She obviously was concerned.

"I... I... I gotta go Nikki..." I replied to her. "I... I'm sorry."

Before she could reply I hung up my phone, shoving it into my pocket. I stood there for a few moments just staring at the blank TV screen. No... I... I can't go to jail! I've never been arested! I'm a good person... I'm not some criminal... While looking at the blank screen on the TV I saw the reflection of Loki appear next to me.

"No... No... This is not what I intended!" I said. "I just... I just wanted to help those dogs... I didn't want to..."

Shep walked over by my side. I sat down on the floor, and hugged him.

"Oh, Shep... What have I done?" Tears escaped my eyes... this time not of anger. "What have I done?"

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**Hum... Alice is getting arrested... Oh joy.**

**PLEASE LEAVE ME A REVIEW! I need your opinions and comments to survive!**


	3. Chapter 3: Interrogation and Blackmail

**A/N Chapter 3! Yay Ehehehe!**

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"Oh God... This can't be happening to me!" I said as the full force of the severity of my current situation hit me. "I can't be aressted! Oh hell, what do I do?"

"Go down there and prove your innocence?"

"What? Are you insane!" I shouted at Loki. "Sure I can go and say that I had nothing to do with the dog nappings, but they have sufficient evidence against me! My fingerprints are on each and every one of those cages, and locks! Oh and that bow! Oh man! They're going to find that and then match it to all those mens injuries! Even though I'm not the accomplice they could still charge me for that! Hell! I'm screwed!"

I flopped onto the couch, putting a pillow over my face.

"I never expected any of this to happen!" I said. I layed there for a few moments, but then another sudden realization came to me, and I quickly sat up. "And Shep! If they think i'm a part of all this they're going to take him away! Ah crap! No! I can't let that happen! Oh, so help me God!"

"You Midgardians are so overreactive."

"Did I ask for your two cents? No!" I said. "And why are you even here still!"

"Oh, so you don't want my help?"

"What kind of help could you possibly be?" I questioned.

"No no. You obviously don't want to hear my ideas." He replied. "I think i'll just leave you alone, as you have wanted."

"Wait! No!" I said quickly getting up from the couch. "What's you're idea! I'm open to anything if it'll get me out of this mess!"

"You're willing to listen now?" He said with a smirk.

I hesitated before I replied. My mind kept telling me that going along with his plan would be like making a deal with the devil. Everything in my head screamed at me to avoid agreeing to anything he said. His grin, and the look in his eyes had that same devious glint that the warehouse scientist had. That stare was full of melevolent intentions. If I listened to him I would be out of my mind... "Yes... I'm listening."

I guess I am out of my mind.

"Wise choice." He said as his grin grew wider. He laughed quietly, which made the feeling of regret immedietly start to surface in my head... Loki put on a more serious face and continued. "First, what you are going to do is to go with the police when they arrive."

"Wait... You called the police!" I shouted. "I thought you were going to help me!"

"I am, but to avoid suspicions you must go and allow them to question you."

"And how exactly does that help me in any way? I really question your logic!"

"Don't you worry. Just do as I said, and the rest will be taken care of."

* * *

"I can't believe I went along with this." I said to myself. I stupidly enough went along with Loki's little plan, and was now being held in a room down at the jailhouse. I had been sitting here alone, in silence for what seemed like a lifetime, waiting for the invesigator to come and question me. What the hell is wrong with me? At what point in the past day did I go completly insane?

I nearly jumped when I heard the door of the room open. In walked a man who looked to be in his late 30s or early 40s, with brown hair. Along with him was a female police officer. She looked to be younger then the man who was sitting across the table from me. The man pulled out some papers from the folder he had with him.

"Alright, Alice... Helios? Am I saying that correctly?" He asked.

"...Yes sir." I replied. I was trying to tell myself to keep calm, but I still couldn't help but to freak out on the inside. The tension in this room right now is so overwhelming, and that combined with the fact that I have no clue what I've walked into with Loki's plan, I'm felling really nervous right now. All this uncertainty, and this state of the unknown is really nerve-racking.

"I am Inspector morris," He introduced. He didn't waste any time before he started asking questions. "Miss Helios, where were you this morning at 7:00 AM?" He asked.

"I was out... walking my dog." I told him. He looked at me with sort of an odd stare.

"Haven't you read the news papers the past week? They advised all dog owners to stay indoors unless absolutly nessisary. You look like a smart young lady, so why would you do exactly the opposite?"

"Sir, I didn't even know that dogs were getting stolen until today." I informed him.

"Is that so?" He said, glacing up at the female officer. After a few moments he looked back at me. "Miss Helios, would you be opposed to taking a polygraph test?"

"...No. No, sir."

Soon after that I was hooked up to a lie detector. You can't even imagine how I feel right now. I feel like some wanted criminal, even though I am not. I have this horrible worry in the pit of my stomach that shouldn't even be there.

"I can see you're a bit nervous Miss Helios." The man said to me. Oh, and that's another thing; I feel odd being called "Miss" It just seems to make me more tense when he says it. "Just answer the questions honestly, and this will be over quickly."

"...Alright." I replied. "Um... I'd prefer you'd call me Alice... If that's alright."

"That's fine." He turned on the machine. I took a deep breath as he asked the first question. "Were you inside of the warehouse in which the stolen dogs were being kept?"

I hesitated before answering. "...Yes."

"Why were you in there?"

"I went into to look for my Dog." I informed the inspector, keeping my answers short.

"Was your dog one of the many that were stolen?"

"Yes. On our morning walk, he was taken from me. I followed the person and that lead me to the warehouse."

"I see..." He flipped through a few papers, and then continued. "Your fingerprints were found on the cages, locks, and on a broken bow, along with various arrows, how do you explain this?"

"When I saw all the dogs inside, I was horrified at the scene... I just wanted to help them."

"You released all of those dogs?" He said. He almost sounded surprised, if not astonished. Even the female officer looked at me with widened eyes.

I nodded. "...yes."

The invesigator, and officer shared another look, as if they were silently communicating. Yet both of their facial expressions hardly changed from their surprised state.

"Was there anyone else with you while you were in the warehouse?"

Crap... What do I say? I mean... I really don't think that I should say anything about Loki appearing out of nowhere. But, then again I am on a lie detector so even if I do say no it wouldn't do any good. It would most likely just give them more reason to be suspicious of me...

"... No."

There was a few moments of silence while the inspector watched the machine. He then sighed, then looked back at me. He turned off the lie detector, while the female officer walked over, and helped to unhook me from it.

"I believe we're done here." Said the inspector, as he closed up the polygraph machine, standing up from his chair.

I was a bit confused, seeing as how this was over so quickly. I thought for sure that he was going to ask more questions...

"Someone will come for you in a few moments." The inspector and the officer both left the room.

The room was now empty yet again, leaving me in the silence. This room is so quiet. The silence gives it such an eerie ambiance. It has that atmosphere that just feels like your being watched. I hated it. I did whatever I could to make noise so the room was so silent. tapping my fingers on the table, or my foot on the floor. Even resorting to listening to my own breathing. I sat in there for who knows how long... I put my head down on the table, resting it on my arms, while I closed my eyes. I'm still quite confused. Why did the inspector end the polygraph test right there? I know for a fact that he had to has seen that needle shaking when I stated that nobody else was in the warehouse... Why didn't he say anything else? Did the little information I gave them say too much? Do they already know exactly what had happened? I kept telling myself to keep my answers short, but even still, did those answers give away everything? These inspectors are trained to look at their cases as a puzzle. Every little statement made is a peice of that puzzle. The inspectors take every statement and convert them, turn them, flip them, so they fit together with each other. Even without all of the peices, they can see the finished picture, and know exactly what it is...

I don't know how much time had passed, but when I heard that familiar voice from behind, my eyes snapped open. So, this wasn't just some trick.

"I assume everything went well?" Loki said.

"That would depend highly on how you look at it." I replied as I stood up, and turn around, facing Loki. "They made me take a Polygraph test."

"How much did you tell them?"

"Not much. Although I fear that the investigator was smarter then he seemed." I said.

"Well you won't have to worry much longer." He replied. Before I could saying anything else, He walked closer, grabbing my shoulder. Something happened then that gave me a very odd feeling. I couldn't even describe the feeling either, but as quickly as it happened, the feeling subsided... And... I realized that I was back at home... In my living room.

"Wha... What did you just do?" I asked curiously... "How... how did you do that?"

"Surely you Midgardians are familiar with the term teleporting." Loki replied.

"Teleportation... Well that certainly explains how you appear out of nowhere."

The clincking of dogs tags came from the hallway and not even 5 seconds after Shep scurried into the room. When he tried to stop he slid across the wooden floor because of how fast he was running. He quickly got up, standing by my side. The look on his face was that of happiness. I bent down and patted him on the head. He was over-excited. As if he thought he wouldn't see me again. It was a nice thing to come back to after my incredibly tense time at the jailhouse. As great as Shep and mines little reunion was, Loki interupted.

He laughed quietly before he spoke. "Your request for help has been filled, Now... It is time for you to meet my demands."

I knew there was going to be a catch to this. I knew he was going to help me and then not pursue what he wanted with me. I stood up, while Loki moved closer.

"And what would that be?" I said. His eyes locked onto mine. Those ridiculously bright green eyes so obviously were full of evil, but yet at the same time it looked like they had a hint of sadness buried deep down inside. Like he was dealing with something with his past that followed him. Something that he wasn't able to shake off.

"You are to follow my orders, do as I say, when I say it." He said to me, his voice carring a very commanding tone.

"And what exactly makes you think that you can force me to do so?"

"Because, at any moment, I could reverse what I did at the jailhouse, and the case against you would be re-opened." He replied. "I hold power over you. One mistake, and you will be taken into custody. Not only for the charges already on your record, but for tampering with police files, and running away from the law."

Blackmail. I should have known.

"You manipulative bastard..." I wispered through my clenched teeth. He mearly laughed. Glancing out the window behind Loki, I saw that it was dark. The sun fully set, with the full moon that glowed in high contrast with the black od the sky took its place. The stars glistened and showed easily through the thin clouds. I looked down at my canine companion. "Shep." At the sound of his name he stood straight looking at me with eager eyes. It was almost like how a cadet would stand at attention to a sargent. "Show our... Guest to the spare bedroom."

Shep gave a bark of understanding, and walked down the hallway, stopping and pushing the door open to the spare room. Loki looked towards him, then back at me.

"You're too kind." Loki said. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Just... stay quiet." I told him. "I've had a very odd day, and I'm going to bed."

If he said anything in reply I didn't hear him as I walked down the hallway into my room, shutting and locking the door behind me. Shep had already situated hiself at the foot of the bed. I went into my closet, changing into my nightshirt, and shorts. When I came back out, Shep lifted his head, giving a low quiet cry. I went and sat down criss-cross applesauce on the bed. Shep moved, and layed his head down on my lap, letting out another, louder cry. I stroked his fur, and scratched behind his ears. I then sighed.

"Shep, I just signed my life away... didn't I?"

* * *

**The plot thickens! 0_0**

**So sorry I didn't have this up sooner! I've been distracted.**  
**I started listening to "The Red Necklace" Audiobook, which I also recently downloaded to my I-pod (At 3 in the morning XD I didn't fall asleep until almost 5am...) And I found links to watch The Hollow Crown on youtube, which I was excited about. I also spent a lot of my time doing pointless crap that wasn't productive in any way.**

**BUT! despite all my procrastination, I hope you still enjoy this **

**I do have a REALLY good Idea for the next chapter though, so hopefully that one will be out soon.**

**PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK SO FAR! **  
No really, I literally live off of your opinions so PLEASE leave me a message and let me know your thoughts! Please! *puppy-dog eyes*


	4. Chapter 4: Lessons in Archery

**A/N Chapter 4! OMG Yay!**

* * *

I woke up the next morning to Shep's slobbery, wet tounge licking my face.

I tried to move away from him, but he continued. "Shep, stop it." He ignored by annoyed command. "Come on Shep. I'm still tired. Five more minutes." When he still didn't listen I sighed and then sat up. "Alright, alright. I'm up. You win."

I streched my arms, then got up from bed, and streched my legs. Shep jumped down from the bed, and pawed at my door. I walked over, unlocking it, and letting him out, while I followed. He went directly into the kitchen, looking into his empty food bowl. He picked it up in his mouth, bringing it over to me. I laughed.

"Alright. What's for breakfest today?" I asked him, as I grabbed a can of his dog food from the cabnit. "Wet or dry?" I held out the can of food, but also pointed to the bag of dry food which sat on the floor. Shep looked at the can, then the bag, and back at me. He then poked his nose at the can of food. "Wet it is." I took his food bowl, and put the food inside of it. I then set the bowl on the floor and Shep began gobbling it up.

I poured myself a glass of milk and went to the counter to grab my contairer of Oreos. Only, when I picked up the box... it felt empty. I turned over the box and nothing but a few crumbs came out. Okay, I know for a fact that this box was full of cookies the last time I checked!

"The hell?" I said in confusion. When I heard footsteps on the floor behind me, my confusion quickly disappeared. "You ate my Oreos!" I said turning around, Looking at Loki.

"Even gods get hungry." He said. "Midgardian cuisine never pleases me, but your "Oreos" as you call them, were rather delicious."

"Of course they were! They're Americas favorite cookie!"

"You seem upset."

I sighed, annoyed, and I turned back around, throwing the empty oreo box into the trash can, and drinking my glass of milk. After I finished I rinsed out the glass placing it into the dishwasher. Shep had finished his food. As I left the kitchen I looked towards him.

"Shep," I said. I pointed to Loki. "Watch him."

I walked down the hallway, back into my room, and grabbed some clothes from my dresser. Returning to the hallway I grabbed a towel from the closet, and went into the bathroom, locking the door. I looked in the mirror noticing that my hair was a horrid mess. I brushed it out a bit just to get some of the tangles and snarls out. After that I turned the shower on, adjusting the temperature a bit.

After I finish showering (And adding a bit of extra conditioner and detangler to my hair) I got dressed. I then started drying my hair with my towel. Once it was dry enough so that it wasn't dripping wet I brushed it out. I took my towel and my night clothes back into my room, throwing them into the closet. I then returned down the hallway and into the living room.

The sight I saw made me laugh out loud.

I don't know why, but Loki was laying face-down on the floor, while shep was sitting on his back. The look on Sheps face showed joy. I could only begin to imagine what had happened to put Loki in such a position.

"Will you please remove your animal?" Loki said.

"Shep, off." I said. He obeyed, getting off of Loki, and finding himself a nice spot on the couch to lay on. Loki stood up, looking at me. I still couldn't help by laugh.

"It's not funny."

"You see me laughing? It's funny." I walked around the couch, sitting down next to Shep. I reached for the TV remote, but before I could, Loki had snatched it. "Hey!"

"You are still to do as I say." He started. "And today you are to find someone to help you improve your skills with the bow and arrow."

"...Huh?" I said confused. "Why would you want me to be better at archery?"

"Because, that skill of yours could be very useful, but in it's current state it is practically worthless." He said back to me.

"So... In other words, you want me to be trained in archery... so you can use me..." I stated. How typical...

He laughed, and smirked. "Do I need to remind you of the circumstances of your current position?"

I sighed... No. He didn't. "Alright, fine. Have it your way then."

* * *

Later that day I was on my laptop e-mailing a local archery teacher. There wasn't much information about him, but it did say that they had much experience with the bow and arrow and was more then qualified to teach the art of it. There was a short form that had to be filled out and included in the e-mail, which was no problem. It asked for basic information such as my name, age, and gender, among with other general things. It asked why I want to take these lessons... and I had to think for a moment. I can't just say "Oh I'm being forced to.". Not only would that sound incrediblly odd, but it's not really how I feel.

Sure, I don't like how Loki wants me to do this so he could use my skills for his own little plans, whatever they may be, but the more that I think about it, the more I realize how much I always wanted to finish learning how to use a bow and arrow. I had forgotten how much I had loved it when I was younger. Call me crazy, but actually i'm not opposed to Loki forcing me to do such a task. It's like if someone was making you watch your favorite show, or play your favorite game. You feel mad because its not of your own choice, but you can stay angry for long because you enjoy that activity.

After finishing the E-mail I clicked send.

I heard Shep bark. I got up, leaving my laptop on my bed, and walked down the hallway to find shep at the front door. I knew exactly what he was trying to say. I grabbed his leash from where I left it on the counter, hooking it to his collar. I opened the front door, walking out side of the apartment building, and let shep "Do his bussiness."

Walking back inside, I now realized that Loki was gone... Huh... I wonder where he disappeared to...

I walked back to my room, Shep following closely behind me. On the screen on my laptop was the words "new message." I sat down on the bed, and I seen that it was a reply to the mail I sent about the archery lessons.

"Wow. That was fast." I opened the reply. At first glace, it obviously wasn't some automated reply. No, this reply looked as though it came straight from the sender. And, from the looks of it, and their overuse of emoticon smilie faces, It seemed like they were... Overjoyed to have gotten a message from me. In the message they asked when it would be a good time for me to meet them at a location. That location coincidentally happened to be the dog park. At the bottom of their message was their signiture. The handwriting was a bit hard to read, but not completly illegable. I assumed it was their name. I couldn't quite make out the first name, but the last name said... Barton? I also could see "Mr." Written in front of the name. Though it was in fairly small letters, as if the sender prefered not to use the title.

"Alright, Mr. Barton." I replyed to the message saying that anytime would be fine with me really. I sent the reply and not even 3 minutes later I had another message. I was a little surprised when He asked if I could meet him in a half hour. Seemed a bit odd, but I was also rather eager to meet this man. He sure seemed quite excited. I told him I would be there, sent the reply, and closed my laptop, placing it on my nightstand.

"Alright then." I said standing up. I then turned towards Shep, who looked at me curiously. I smiled at him. "Come on Shep. Let's go see all your friends at the Dog park."

He happily jumped down from the bed, rushing to the front door, full of excitement.

* * *

At the dog park I didn't have to look long before I knew exactly where this "Mr. Barton" was. In the back corner of the park I saw a man holding a bow, aiming an arrow at a target which already had an arrow stuck in the center. After a few seconds he let go of the arrow, and it flew through the air, splitting the other arrow completly in half.

"Wow." I said as I walked closer to him. "That was pretty amazing."

He looked towards me. "Ah, You are Ms. Helios I presume!"

"Yes, Mr. Barton," I replied. As I got closer I got a better look at him. He had blond hair... or was it brown? Perhaps it was both. He also had brown eyes. He was dress casually with a simple t-shirt and pair of jeans. For a nice day at the park you don't need much else. "But I don't like titles, please just call me Alice."

He laughed. "The same goes for me, You can call me Clint."

"Nice to meet you Clint." I said politly. "I hope you don't mind I brought my dog, Shep. He's missed his fellow canine friends."

Shep was sniffing Clints shoes when I looked down at him.

"Oh not at all." Clint replied. Shep looked up at him with a friendly gaze. Clint patted him on the head. I uncliped his leash, letting him go run around with the rest of the dogs. Look around and seeing this park full of canines again. It gave me such a... great feeling. Watching all these animals run around, and play with each other just gaving me the happiest sense of joy. Hold on... My name was on the news... shouldn't he have already known of me? It the dawned on me that, Loki must have done something that practically erased that incident from existance... As much as I don't want to say it... I'll have to thank Loki for that...

"Thanks for seeing me on such short notice." I said.

"Oh it's no problem." He replied. "I don't get many people who are interested in Archery." He seemed a bit sad as he spoke. "I was rather excited when I received your e-mail."

I laughed. "I could tell."

"Well it's just that people aren't very much into archery anymore it seems." He said.

"Well, I took a few lessons when I was younger. I've always loved it actually, but I've never learned everything."

"Well it's nice to hear that someone still appriciates the art." He said. "Let's get started."

"Gladly."

"First, are you left or right handed?" He asked.

"Right."

"Alright then." He handed me a bow. "Since you've taken lessons before, how about you show me what you can do, and we can work from there?"

"Sounds like a plan." I replied. He gave me an arrow, and I walked so I was standing in front of the target, which was maybe... 50 feet away. I pulled the arrow back in the bow, trying to aim it as best I could. When I thought I had it aimed perfectly, I let go. The arrow flew and ended up hitting in the middle, but it was too far to the left. I turned back around to look at Clint.

"Not bad." He said. "Your aim could use some work, but you deninitly have potential."

"Thanks. That means alot." I said. I then sighed. "My aim has always been off a bit actually. I never really knew why though."

"Hum... Are you left eyed, or right eyed?" He asked.

"Huh?" I said confused. "I don't know what you mean."

"Sometimes one eye has more domienice over the other. The domient eye is responsible for more accurate aiming when it come to archery." He explained, while I nodded, showing that I understood. "I get the feeling that you are Left eyed. Perhaps you should try again with a left handed bow."

"Well okay."

He swapped bows with me, and I stood again in front of the target. It was a bit hard to use this left handed bow because of me being right handed, but I pulled the arrow back, aiming again. When I let go of it this time it got much closer to the center then my last attempt. Still not on the center exactly, but the improvement from simply switching bows was obvious. It blew my mind.

"Woah... That's... quite a difference." I said.

"Ah, I knew it." Clint said. "With a bit more practice I say you could be a master of the bow in no time."

I smiled happily.

The lesson went on for, I don't even know how long, Clint helping me work on my aim and also giving a few helpful tips. When the session finally came to it's end I wistled for Shep and he came running.

"Say good bye to Clint, Shep." I said. Shep barked. Clint bent down, petting Shep on the head. Shep then started Licking his face. "No, Shep, stop it!"

Clint laughed as he stood up, wiping Sheps siliva off of his cheek. "No, no. He's cool. He's a nice dog." I smiled. "Let's have another lesson tomorrow."

"Same time, same place?" I asked.

"Sounds good." He replied. I turned around to leave, but he stopped me before I could do so. "Wait," he said. He grabbed the left handed bow I had been using, handing it to me. "Take this home with you."

"But, don't you need this... you know for your other students?"

"No. You're actually my only student at the moment. First one in quite a while actually."

"Oh," I took the bow from him, "Well thanks."

"No problem." He said with a smile.

"Good bye Clint." I said.

"Good bye Alice."

I turned around leaving. As I walked away I turned my head, waving to him. "See you tomorrow!"

* * *

Back at home, I walked in the front door, setting my bow down on the counter. I unhooked Shep from his leash, and he darted straight to his water bowl. I went to the fridge grabbing a bottle of water for myself, chugging down half of it. I then walked into the living room to find Loki sitting on the couch. He was staring at the Tv screen, watching one of my favorite comedy shows.

"It's funnier if you change the audio to spanish." I said, as I grabbed the remote, hitting the settings button. I switched it to spanish, and exited the menu. The shows audio changed to spanish, and, even though I only know a very small portion of the language, I couldn't help but laugh obnoxiously. This show is just full of vieods where people act stupid doing ridiculous stunts, and just only up hurting themselves and losing their pride in the end. It may seem cruel laughing at other peoples misfortune, but it's just so damn funny.

The show went to commercial.

"Did you do what I told you?" Loki said.

"As you asked. Found an Archery teacher online, and we met in the park this afternoon. He even gave me a bow to keep." I replied. I then drank the rest of my water. "We're having another lesson tomorrow."

"Excellent." He said, his devious smirk spreading across his face. "You will soon be of great use."

* * *

**I love this chapter! **  
**Ehehehe! Clint is Alice's archery teacher **  
**Who better to learn from the Hawkeye! **

**JUST AN FYI**  
**This will most certainly NOT turn into a Clint X Alice thing. **  
**I love the Clint X Natasha pairing to much to write anything that messes with that. Clint and Alice may become friends, but nothing more.**

**...I'm still debating is I want to eventually have this end up being a Loki X Alice thing... I don't know it. I'm still thinking about it. Let me know your thoughts about it.**

**PLEASE! PLEASE! LEAVE ME A COMMENT! I NEED YOUR OPINIONS TO SURVIVE 0_0**

**And yes, Loki loves Oreos.**


	5. Chapter 5: Laughter Is the best medicine

**A/N Yay for Chapter 5!**

* * *

I woke up the next morning, glancing at my clock. It was 7am. I'm usually not one for getting up quite this early, but even when I laid there, trying to get a few more minutes of rest, I just couldn't fall back to sleep. I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes, and streching my arms. Shep was still sound asleep at the foot of the bed. One of his paws was hanging off the edge, and he was snoring lightly. I laughed quietly as I got up. I went into the bathroom, brushing out the mess that I call my hair. I tied it back into a ponytail, then went back to my room, changing out of my pajamas.

Walking out into the kitchen I really wanted some oreos, but then I remembered that Loki ate them all...

"Damn it..." I said to myself. I then sighed loudly. I wanted oreos... but do I want them badly enough that I'd go to the gas station down the street to buy them? Do I really need them. I pondered this for a few moments and came to a conclusion...

Yeah. I do. I want Oreos.

So off I went. One benifit of living near a major street was that my house was walking distance from a variety of places. From fast food resturants ranging from chinese food to all american ham burgers, to gas stations, and even the local doughnut shop. I left the house, after grabbing my wallet, and went outside. The walk was pleasent. The temperature outside was a cool 65 degrees, but had a warm breeze, the high temperature for today was supposed to be in the 80s. The sunrise filled the sky with various colours ranging from light pastel blue, to soft dreamcicle orange. It was one of those things that people just love to take pictures of.

I got to the Gas station, walking inside, being greeted by the cashier. I waved and said good morning. Then I walked over to where the cookies were. I looked for a moment, and picked up a package of mint flavored Oreos. My favorite. I turned to walk to the counter, but I stopped. After a bit of thought, I grabbed a package of regular Oreos as well. I walked up to the counter, paying for the cookies, and the cashier put them in a bag. I took the bag and began walking home.

When I arrived, I opened the door, and walked in. I took the mint oreos out of the bag, opening them. I put some of them on a plate. I then had a great idea and remembered that I had a jar of peanut butter in the cabnit. I know what you're thinking, peanut and mint? Hey, don't knock it till you try it. It's actually pretty tasty. I got out the jar, and took it, and my plate of cookies into the living room. I turned on the TV changing it to Comedy central.

I heard Shep's dog tags making noise, and then watched him climb onto the couch laying down next to me.

Oreos, peanut butter, and early morning comedy. Sounds like a good morning to me.

* * *

While Shep and I watched the morning comedy shows, me eating my newly bought oreos, dipped in peanut-butter, I heard a door open, and footsteps sound on the wooden floor.

"Stay up too late ay, sleeping beauty?" I said jokingly to Loki.

"Slumbering did not come easy last night..." He replied. His voice sounded rough and scratchy, like how someone would sound when they had a sore throat. "When did you awaken?"

"I was up two hours ago." I looked behind me, and laughed at him. "Hehehe. You're hair is a mess." I said. His hair was spiked and sticking out in random places, with many flyaways hanging in his face.

"I'm in no mood for your comments, mortal." He said holding one hand to his head. He shut his eyes tightly.

"Headache?" I asked.

"Uuug. Very much so, yes."

"If you're a God, like you say, can't you just heal it magicaly or something?" I said. It would make sense. He can teleport so I wouldn't doubt it if he had self-healing or health regeneration abilities.

"No, I can't." He replied seeming a bit annoyed. "Magic doesn't work that way."

"Aww... I sorry." I said. I actually felt bad for him. He obviously was in pain. Headaches can be incredibly annoying, I know that. "Do you want an asprin?"

"Will that relieve my ailment?"

"It'll help at least." I told him. I got up from the couch. "Come here." I walked into the kicthen, opening the cabnit closet to the fridge, and grabbed the small bottle of asprin from the top shelf. I took two of the asprins out, then put the bottle back into the cabnit. I also filled a small glass with water. I turned around, handing Loki the glass, and giving him the pills. "Swallow these, and drink the water to wash them down." He barely hesitated before he did just that.

"How long must I wait before they take effect?" He asked.

"Well when you take one it takes about a half hour." I informed him. "But I gave you two of them so I'd say 15 or 20 minutes."

"Lovely..." He said. His eyes wondered around the kitchen, and when he spotted the open container of Oreos on the counter, he reached to grab one, but I stopped him.

"Wait, No." I said. "Those are mine... Yours are in there." I pointed to the bag on the other side of the counter. He looked at it, then looked back a me curiously. He didn't say anything, as if he was at a lose for words.

"What... No witty remark?" I said. "That headache must be really be messing with ya."

I walked back into the living room, looking at the TV.

"Oooh! Jeff dunhum is on!" I said excitedly. He is a ventriloquist, and he can be hilariously funny. He has many little characters, each of them having unique personalities. All his wacky, zanny puppets each have their own different sense of humor, and it appeals to most anyone. It also amazes me how many different voices this guy could do. He can sound like a southern countryman, a grumpy old man, and even imitate a spanish accent. I sat back down on the couch, as I grabbed a couple Oreos off of my plate. Shep had moved, and laid curled up in the middle of the couch. He looked so cute. It reminded me of when I adopted him from the pound as a puppy. He used to curl up next to me like that at night whenever there was a big storm. He was terrified of the sounds of the thunder and bright flashes of lightning when he was young. He has since outgrown that stage of being extreamly scared, but even still, storms tend to make him tad nervous.

I returned my attention to the TV, watching and listening to the hilaity playing on the screen. It had me laughing and giggling like you wouldn't even believe.

"Might I ask what is so funny?" Loki said. I turned my head, and he was standing there, holding a few Oreos in his hand.

"Controlled Chaos." I replied. "This show is just... Gold."

"Wouldn't 'controlled chaos' be an oxymoron?"

"Exactly. That's part of what makes it funny." I said. "Sit down, watch it. Sometimes laughter is the best medicine."

After a moment, Loki walked over, and sat on the other side of the couch. Shep moved a bit, re-positioning himself, and snuggling closer to me. I patted him on the head.

We sat there watching all of the comdedic stylings on Jeff dunham. From the mindless arguing between Peanut and Jose jalapeno, Peanut using his favorite word "dumbass" and making fun of Jose, while Jose made smart remarks back a him. Then there was Ahkmed the skeleton terrorist, with his signiture yelling at the audiance whenever they laughed. Silence! I keel you! Even when something in the show goes wrong, like for instance, when the lights started flickering Jeff just continued on, making jokes about electricians.

I heard my phone ringing, so I got up from the couch, walking into my room to answer it. My cell phone was on my dresser and the caller ID identified my friend Nikki.

"Hahaha. Hey Nikki." I said, still laughing at the show I had been watching.

"Hey Alice. What's so funny?" She replied.

"Oh I was just watching comedy central. Anyway... What's up?"

"I'm off of work early today at 3 so I thought we could go do something." She said.

"Sounds cool!" I replied, but I then remembered that I had another archery lesson. "Hey, how about you meet me in the dog park at 5?"

"The one right by your house?" She asked. I replied, telling her that was the one. "Alright, see you then!"

She hung up, and I pocketed my cellphone walking back into the living room. Looking at Loki sitting on the couch was like looking at a completly different person... I mean... Just days ago, this was the man who I saw murder another human, appear in my house trying to tell me what to do, and throwing my dog across the room. Not to forget that he also "helped" me, just so he could blackmail me into doing as he asks. Now, here he is, sitting there, watching tv, and eating Oreos. The difference was so vast that it nearly made him unrecognizeable. When I came home yesterday, finding him watching TV, he showed little to no emotion at all. Now, he's laughing, and, dare I say, enjoying himself. Huh... I guess it makes sense that the God of mischief would find a good comedy to be amusing.

Returning to sit down, I finished watching the show.

"How's the headache?" I asked Loki.

"...Better." He replied. "Nearly gone actually."

"See. Asprin and comedy, best cure for most any kind of pain! Hahaha"

Shep, who was still sitting in the same spot as before, lifted his head, yawning. When he saw the jar of peanut butter on the table he looked up at me.

"No Shep, you know peanut butter doesn't agree with you." I said to my dog. He gave his a begging look, and a small cry, while he put his paws on my leg. "Oh, come on. Don't give me that face..." he drooped his head sadly, resting it on his paws, and letting out another sad wimper. "Aww... Alright, fine." I gave in. I took one of my Oreos, and dipped it in the jar, getting the cookie covered in the peanut butter that Shep loves so much. When I held out my hand, he snatched the cookie, and started crunching it, then licking the peanut butter that was stuck to the roof of his mouth.

"It's funny how you cave in so easily to him." Loki said.

"It's those adorable puppy-dog eyes." I replied as I watched shep. "He knows I can't say no to them, and he just loves using it against me." Shep looked at me with that "I'm innocent" look. I laughed and hugged him around his neck. "But I love him. He's my little adopted child."

I noticed an odd look over-take Loki's face when I said "adopted." I'm not sure why though.

"It's still quite funny." He said after a few moments.

"No, what's funny is your hair." I said with a laugh.

"Oh, like you've never had a bad hair day."

"Hahaha. But seriously, you look like a porcupine... Go brush it or something."

* * *

The day went on and it came time for me to go meet with Clint for our Archery lesson. After wistleing for Shep, hooking him to his leash, and grabbing the bow I had been given, I left the house. When we arrived at the park, in the same location as last time, Clint had two targets set up. The targets had numbers on each of the rings. The outermost ring had a 1, while the center was labeled with a 10.

"Hey Clint." I greeted him.

"Good to see you again, Alice." He replied. He was holding a bow that looked rather different from others I had seen. It was black, and more... sleek looking. It also had a red light on it. Clint was also wearing a pair of sun-glasses. You could clearly see your reflection in the shiny purple surface of them.

"I notice you have two targets." I said looking towards them.

"Ah yes, I thought I'd make the lessons a little more fun." He explained.

"Oh, friendly competition eh? Hardly seems fair seeing as you're the instructor."

"Hahaha. Well, That will be your motivation to do better." He said. Ah, I see what he's doing now. Makes perfect sense.

"Well lets start then." I let Shep off of his leash, and he quickly ran off to rough-house with all his canine pals.

"Ladies first." Clint said. "Shoot five arrows, and then we'll see how well you score."

I walked over in front of the target on the left. Arrows were being held in a bucket sitting on the ground. I picked up one of them, pulling it back in the bow. Aiming was more difficult because of the breeze that was blowing today. I tried to take it in account while I was trying to line up the arrow. When I let go, the arrow flew and hit the target below the center. Hum... Too low. I grabbed another arrow aiming higher this time. This arrow got closer to the center, ended up striking too high. I continued with the third arrow; too far to the left, and the fouth; very close, but still inches away. I was starting to get annoyed, and I was determinded to hit that target in the center. I picked up the last arrow, pulling it back. When I let this one go, I watched it as it flew.

"Bullseye!" I yelled excitedly. "Yeah!"

Clint and I both walked over to the target to see how many points I scored.

"10, 8, 6, 7... 31 points total." Clint said doing the quick mental math. "Not bad, Considering you had to work around the wind speeds."

When Clint took his turn it was just as I would have guessed. All 5 of his shots landed perfectly in the center. At his last shot he even turned his head away from the target, still hitting the bullseye flawlessly.

"Okay, now you're just being a show off." I joked.

"Ah, you just haven't learned the hidden secrets."

"Secrets?" I said curiously "Like what?"

"Like these for instance." He took off his sun-glasses. I gave him an odd look. Whats so special about a pair of glasses? I could go to the store and probably buy that exact same pair. He must have noticed my confusion. "Try them on."

Curiousity overtook me, and I took the glasses from him. I put them on, and didn't really notice anything. Clint intructed me to face one of the target, and to touch the left side of the frames. I followed what he told me.

"Whoa!" I said. When I touched the frames, the glasses seemed to zoom in on the target in the distance. Once zoomed in a red dot appeared on the inside of the lens. The letters A.P were next to the dot. Hum... A.P... Aiming Point... "They tell you where to aim! These things are amazing!" I touched the side of them again, and they zoomed back out. I took them off, then turned back to Clint. "You cheater."

"I assure you I could have easily done it without those." He replied with a laugh.

"Sounds as though I'm learning from the best." I said, I looked at the glasses again. "Damn I need to get me a pair of these! Where'd you get em?"

"Hehe, Now that is something I can not tell you." He said. I frowned, but he then continued. "But today's your lucky day. I don't use those anymore as they are no help to me. More a hinderence actually. You can keep them."

"Really? Ah sweet!" I put them back on my face. "You're awesome Clint!"

"Hey Alice!" I heard a yell. It came from behind me. I turned around and saw Shep leading Nikki across the field. I waved to her. Shep came and stood by my side, and Nikki was there moments later. "Nice sun glasses." She then looked over, noticing Clint. "Who's this?"

"Oh! This is Clint, He's my archery instructor." I said to Nikki. "Clint, this is my best friend Nikki." I introduced them both, and they said hello to each other. "Wait, it's 5-o-clock already? Where did the time go?"

"Time flies like and arrow when you're having fun." Clint replied. I laughed at his pun. "Come back tomorrow and I'll show you more archery's secrets."

I happily agreed, and then gatherred my belonging. Sheps leash, my bow, and newly aquired sunglasses of awesomeness. I said my goodbye to Clint, smiling as I walked away.

Nikki and I hung out in the park for quite a while. Just walking, and chatting with each other. We even got to play frisbee with a few other people and their dogs. Shep joyfully jumped and chased the frisbee as it flew. Nikki started asking me about Clint, saying that he seemed nice, and I agreed. She then went into her typical girly mood, asking is there was anything 'going on' between him and I. I assured her that nothing was. If anything he was a friend... Plus, i'm pretty sure he already has a girlfriend. I just get that feeling from him.

"I think I'm gonna head on home Nikki." I said. Shep was worn out from his day of play, and I actually was a bit tired as well. Time had escaped us, and it was nearly 9pm before we even knew it.

"Hey." She said to me. "My parents and I aren't really seeing eye to eye right now, Could I stay at your house tonight? They need some time to cool down."

"Nikki your like a sister to me, of course you ca-" I stopped myself. She can't stay at my house. Not when Loki is there. "Wait, no, you can't. I'm sorry."

"Huh? Why not?" She asked.

"Uh..." I tried to think of a good excuse. "I haven't cleaned... The house is a mess."

"Alice... When have I ever been one to care about the cleanliness of your house?" She said. "Come on please? I don't want to face my mother right now."

I sighed... "Alright sure."

She smiled, and me, her and Shep started walking home. We continued out small talk on the way, but inside all I could hear was my concinse saying "What have you just done?"

* * *

**What have I done? Nikki can't go to the house with the God of mischief running around!  
**  
**Sure, Loki seems out of character, but who the hell cares? I like this Loki ;)**

**Alice has Clint's Sunglasses!  
****I don't know if his glasses actually do anything, but he seems like he would have something like that They're hers now!**

**I finished typing this at 2 am So there will probably be some spelling and grammar mistakes. If you spot any, please, point it out to me. **  
**Also, It was either Jeff Dunham, or Worlds dumbest, that I was gonna have Loki watch... I decided on Jeff cause he's a pretty funny guy. **

**I think Loki would enjoy a good comedy. Don't you?**

**AGAIN, PLEASE GIVE ME OUR OPINIONS! I NEED THEM TO SURVIVE 0_0**


	6. Chapter 6: Breakdown

**Chapter 6! Woohoo!**

* * *

When I arrived back home with Nikki following closly behind, all my mind could think about was when I walk in the door, And she sees Loki, things could go one of two ways. One, her mind could go diving straight into the gutter, because thats just the kind of person that she is, or two, She would have some kind of freak out and end up passing out on the floor. Right now, i'm kind of hoping that the latter will happen.

I unlocked my front door, walking in slowly. Looking around, I saw no sign of Loki... Perhaps he has disapeered again. Nikki came in, shutting the door behind her. I took Shep off of his leash, still looking around, and listening intently for anything that would say that Loki is still here.

"What's wrong, Alice?" Nikki asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Thought I saw something..." I replied.

Nikki and I sat around chatting, and watching TV that night. She had told me that her and her mother got into a rather loud argument over subjects that I will not repeat. Let just say it involved a numerous amount of insults and every name that could have slipped off thier tounges was thrown out into the air during their battle of words. Nikki ended up storming out of the house in anger. She had never really fought with her mother before, little disagreements sure, but never anything this major. I didn't question her about it any further, as she seemed quite a bit broken up by it. She obviously regreted saying such horrible things.

"Don't worry about it Nikki." I said to her. "I'm sure your mother will forgive you in due time."

"I sure hope you're right, Alice."

It had gotten late. Nikki was tired, and wanted to go to sleep. Just so she could stop worrying about her mother for the time being. To just escape to her dreams where there wasn't any problems. She made her way towards the guest bedroom. I rushed past her, getting to the door before her, peaking into the room. Nope... Loki wasn't hiding out in here. I came out of the room. Nikki looked at me with a weirdly confused expression, as if she thought I was going crazy.

"Sorry about that." I said to her, trying to think of some lie to tell her. "...A bird flew in the window earlier, and I wanted to make sure it was gone."

"A bird?"

"Yeah. Flew in by mistake, I shut the door so it would find it's way back out."

Nikki seemed to believe me. Or maybe she knew it was a lie, I don't know. Either way, she must have just been too tired to question it. I can unserstand that, considering she has her own problems to deal with at the moment. She went into the room, saying good night to me.

"Good night." I said back to her, as I went to my room.

Shep came in after me, taking his usual place on the bed. After changing clothes, I layed down, quickly falling asleep.

* * *

The next morning, I was violently woken by the sound of Nikki's high pitched scream coming from the kitchen.

My eyes snapped open. "Oh hell." I thought.

The screech woke up Shep and he nearly fell off of the bed. I jumped up, quickly making my way down the hallway. Entering the kitchen, the scene in front of me was dominated by Nikki who had grabbed a large knife out of the silverwear set, and was backed up against the counter.

"Who the hell are you!" She yelled at Loki, who was standing on the other side of the kitchen. He tried to speak, but Nikki interupted him, continuing to yell. "You're a burgler aren't you! Aren't you! Get out of here!" She advanced towards him, clutching the knife. The look in her eyes, showing that she wasn't afraid to use it if she had to.

"Nikki, no!" I ran, standing in front of Loki. She came to a halting stop, while I knocked the knife out of her hand. It fell and clanked to the floor, but not before it cut the palm of my right hand. It started bleeding, and it stung. I held my hands together, putting pressure on the cut.

"Alice, what the hell!" Fury filled her eyes as she glared at me angrily. There was an increasingly intense moment of silence. My mind flip-floped between telling Nikki the truth, or trying to lie my way out of this.

"Uh...This is all a lucid dream, Nikki." I said. The idea of lying to her was the path that I took. "You are imagining all of this."

"Alice, I'm not stupid!" She said back. "If this was a lucid dream I'd have super-powers and wouldn't need a knife!"

Somehow... I knew that my lie wasn't going to work.

"Nikki please, calm down."

"You're asking me to calm down! What is wrong with you, Alice!" She looked up at Loki. "Who the 'eff is that!" Before she could say anything else, I pushed her out of the kitchen, down the hallway, and into the guest room, shutting the door.

"You need to calm yourself, Nikki," I told her. "Before you do anything rash."

"Just tell me who that is!" She demanded. "Why is he in your house?"

I opened my mouth to speak to her, but couldn't say anything as I didn't even know how to reply to her.

"...Wait," She suddenly said. Her angered expression changed quickly to one that made a wide grin appear on her face. She laughed a bit before she continued, her voice going into a sing-song fashion "Oh ho ho hoo! Al-ice! That wouldn't happen to be your boyfriend would it?" She raised her eyebrows as she stared at me.

"What! N-No! It-It's nothing of that sort!" I told her.

"Hehehe! Yeah it is! I see you blushing!"

"No, Nikki! My face is probably red from blood lose!" I said holding up my wounded hand, showing her the cut, which was still bleeding.

"Hey! That was your own fault!"

"You're the one who pulled a knife!" I stated. "Who the hell does that anymore!"

"I thought he was a burgler! I was in the kitchen, turned around and he's standing there, as if he appeared out of nowhere!"

"He's not a damn burgler!"

"The why is he in your house huh?" She asked, raising her voice. "Answer me that!"

"Alright... fine," I said, letting out an annoyed sigh. "I'll tell you."

"...I'm listening."

"He's been here for the past few days." I said lowing my voice to nearly a wisper. "And he's here because I'm... sort of... In debt to him."

"In debt!" Nikki exclaimed. "Alice what did you do!"

"It doesn't concern you, Nikki!" I replied. "There's nothing you can do to help. I'd rather you stay out of it anyway."

"Stay out of it!" She voice rose back to its angered state. "You tell me that you're in debt to somebody, and you want me to stay out of it!"

"Yes..." I said. "I don't want you to get involved... It's for you own safety."

She stared at me for a few moments. "I'm leaving." She said, walking around me. She opened the door, storming down the hallway. I heard the front door open, and the slam loudly.

I just stood there for a few moments, taking in what I had just done. I only snapped out of my daze, when I looked down at my injured hand, and saw that a drop of blood fell to the floor. I held my hand together again, walking out of the room, back into the kitchen.

"Damn it." I said quietly to myself. My cut was starting to sting worse then before. "Ahh... Damn it Nikki! You and that damn knife!"

I hadn't even noticed that Loki had walked over to me, until he reached to grab my hand.

"No! Don't touch it!" I said, yanking my hand away.

"I'm not going to touch it." He replied. "I just want to look at it."

"... Alright." I held out my hand. It wasn't bleeding as bad as it was before, but both of my hands were dyed red from me holding them together. Loki took my hand, examining the cut. I flinched away, when he touched it with his thumb.

"It is not a deep cut. It will be fine if it's cleaned and bandaged"

"I have a first aid kit in the bathroom." I said, I turned around walking down the hallway, into the bathroom. Loki followed me, and opened the medicine cabnit.

"Wash the blood off of your hands." He said. I turned the knob on the sink, running the water on my hands. The blood washed off, dying the water a slight pink color as it went down the drain. I carfully dried my hands with the hand towel on the towel rack. I looked at the first aid kit, noticing that all I had to clean the cut was peroxide. Oh man, this is gonna burn. Loki took a large cotten ball, putting the peroxide on it. I held my hand out again.

"Go." I said. "Just do it. Do it now and get it over with." When the peroxide came in contact with the cut I hate to bite my lip to prevent myself from swearing. The burning of it was worse then the sting from earlier. After the cut was cleaned, Loki wrapped a hand bandage around it.

There was a few moments of scilence... but was broken quickly by me. "Uh... Thank you."

* * *

When it came time for me to meet with Clint in the park again, I wasted no time, leashing Shep, and grabbing my Bow, Also taking the Sun-glasses he gave me. The only reason I put on the glasses was to hide my eyes. I didn't want Clint to notice the sadness in them, caused by my argument with Nikki. If he did, he would ask what was wrong, and I just don't want to talk about it. I want to have the archery lesson, and let my mind forget about it.

When I arrive at the usual location, the targets were set up, but I didn't see Clint. I looked around, wondering where he might be. I saw dogs running around, their owners playing with them, or chatting with other people. Some of the canine chased squirles, and ran then up the trees. No matter where I looked, Clint was nowhere to be found. I sighed, but as I looked back at the targets, I saw an arrow stuck in the middle of one of them. That wasn't there a few seconds ago... What also struck me was that the arrow had hit at an angle, as if it was shot from a higher elevation then the target... Judging by the angle... I looked up at the tree that was behind me. Shep looked up at the same tree, and barked.

"Clint?" I called. I touched the side of my glasses, and they zoomed in closer to the tree. It was him. He was up in the tree. "Clint!" A minute later he climbed down the tree. I zoomed the glasses back out as he got to the ground. I laughed. "Why were you in that tree?"

"To see if you could find me. And how long it would take if you could." He replied. "You passed that lesson with flying colors."

"Finding you was a lesson?" I asked. "I don't think I understand..."

"Think about it. How did you know where I was?"

"That arrow you shot was at an angle. I knew it was shot from somewhere up high." I took a second but then the light bulb above my head went on. "OH! I get it now!"

"Judging angles." Clint stated. "Very important part of Archery."

"You have very... unique ways of teaching." I said to him with a laugh.

"Unique, but effective."

"So... What's on the lesson plans for today?" I asked.

"Just as I said." He replied. "Instead of being directly in front of the target, you're going to learn to shoot from different angles."

"Sounds good." I said. After I let shep off his leash, He didn't run off to play with his fellow canines. Instead he sat by the tree watching. When I lifted my hand to push a few flyaway hairs outta my face, Clint noticed the bandage.

"What happened to your hand?" He asked.

"Oh. Uh... Just a little accident." I said. "Nothing to worry about."

He nodded, and we began our lesson.

Clint first had me stand to the left of one of the targets at about a 60 degree angle. When I tapped the sunglasses it showed the red dot, the aiming point. I aimed at that point, my hands were a bit shaky. Maybe from my shaken nerves, due to the earlier events of this morning. When I let go of the arrow It got close to the center, but was in the 9 point ring of the target.

"Good." Clint said. "Now, how about you try again without the glasses this time."

"Hehehe." I laughed, and then moved the glasses so they were sitting on top of my head. "Right."

When I tried again, much to my surprise, The arrow hit closely next to the first one.

"Your aim is improving, I see." Clint said. "Let's continue."

I shot from more angles on the left, and the repeating each of those angles on the right. When I was on the right side and hit the bullseye, I yelled out joyusly. When the next arrow hit the center as well I nearly lost it with happiness. When the lesson ended, Clint complimented me on how well I did.

"You're a fast learner." He said. "Your quick progress is pretty amazing."

"Hehe. I got a good teacher."

I leashed up Shep, and said my good bye to Clint, after we agreed to meet back here. Clint oddly enough wanted to have the lesson later in the day when it was going to be dark out. I didn't question him though. All of his teaching ways have worked well so far. Curiosity also sprang up, and made me wonder what Clint had in mind for tommorow's lesson.

* * *

Back at home, late that night, I stayed up watching a movie in the living room. The TV being my only light sorce. As I watched the movie, my mind could only wander off thinking back to my argument with Nikki. She sounded so enraged at me... So... ticked off that I didn't want her to get involved. I only want to protect her safety. If she gets into this business, she could end up being in the same situation as I am. And I don't want that to happen. As these thoughts played in my head I couldn't help but let out tears.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I said to Loki. I had been wearing my sunglasses, hiding my eyes. "I... I'm fine." I closed my eyes behind the glasses trying to stop more tears from forming, only to have no such luck, as more started falling down my cheeks. A moment later, I felt the glasses being lifted off of me. Loki had taken them off, setting them on the table, and exposing my tear-stained face.

"No, you're not."

"Really. I'm fine... Nothing is wrong." I insisted. My sniffling nose, and uneven breathing completly contridicted my statement.

Loki had sat down on the couch next to me. It would have surprised me, but the part of my mind that would have reacted to his actions was being more then over-ruled by my sad thoughts.

"I know something is wrong."

"... I... I just wish that... my fight with Nikki had never happened." I said. "She seemed so... mad at me." I wiped the tears off of my face only to have more start forming in my eyes. I rested my head in my hand on the arm of the couch. "There was such fury and rage in her eyes... I... I've never seen her so angry at me before... I just want to apologize to her." I don't know why I was telling Loki all of this, but there was just some sort of comforting feeling with just letting my thoughts out into the open.

"Seems to me that you care about her greatly."

"Yeah... She's always been such a great friend." I continued. "We've been like sisters since grade school... And... seeing her walk out, and the thought that I would lose my best friend... is just something I can't handle." Tears were now pouring down my face, me having given up trying to stop them. Loki put his arm around me, pulling me closer to him, so that I my head rested on his shoulder. Any other time I probably would have pulled away, but dispair seemed to over-rule any of my actions, immobalizing me in that position. I half opened my watery eyes, and saw Shep standing in front of me. He looked at Loki and then at me. He looked back and forth for a few moments, the look on his face clearly stating that he was trying to figure out if Loki was harming me, or if it was the polar opposite of that. Shep, after his moments of thought, jumped up on the couch, curling up next to me, determining that the latter was true. I, still crying the salted tears of unhappiness, just sat there with Loki... In scilene. The only sounds being my crying, and soon, Shep's light snoring.

* * *

**Awww! Loki hugs! ^-^ How cute!**  
**Leave me a review with your opinions and comments please!**  
**If you have any suggestions leave me those as well!**


	7. Chapter 7: Redefining Friendship

**Chapter 7 has arrived! Enjoy! And please comment to let me know what you think!**

* * *

Have you ever felt like you've totally screwed up? Like you completly messed up the one thing that can't be fixed? Have you ever had so much sadness and dispair built up that it engulfs your mind, and threatenes to just make you break down? Have you ever said something that you've quickly regretted, and then have no way to take it back? Ever wondered what would have happened if you had never said those things? Have you ever just wanted to travel back in time and slap yourself right upside the head, and yell at your past self for being so stupid? Have you ever wanted to make one wish, and have that one foolish event erased from history?

Right now... all of those, and possibly more apply to me. And when I woke up suddenly this morning from a horrible nightmare my feeling of regret increased to even higher levels. I sat up, slowly realizing that what I had saw wasn't reality. It was just a bad dream. Yet it felt all to real... As I sat there, images of the nightmare played back in my head, Like a movie that didn't have an off button.

It was all so simple, yet so detailed. Everything around me was dark, black, colorless. I stood in this darkness for a unknown amount of time. As I walked through this empty void I saw one part that was brightly lit with all the colors of the rainbow. Thinking that it was something good, I rushed to it, trying to escape the darkness. When I reached the colors, every thing felt good at first. But then the colors faded, revealing a scene in front of me that left me speechless. It was some street in a city, lined with tall buildings on each side. Along the streets were overturned cars, fallen lamposts, and various other debris scattered all over. In the midst of this chatoic scene I saw Nikki running. She was running as if something was chasing her, but I didn't see anything behind her. She continued running, yelling out in terror. When she triped and fell to the ground, her screams hightened, until whatever invisible force was pursuing her... silenced her right then and there. It all felt so real. As if it was really happening. Even more horifying is, whenever I would try and run over to Nikki, I couldn't. I couldn't move at all. It was almost as if I was being made to stand there, and watch as my best friend was murdered right in front of my eyes.

I held my hands over my eyes, breathing in deep breaths and trying to calm myself.

"It was just a dream..." I said to myself. "It wasn't real..."

When I uncovered my eyes, It came to my attention that I was in the living room. I must have fell asleep here last night.

"Not a very restful night I assume?" I heard. Looking up, I saw Loki standing in the archway that connect the living room to the kitchen.

"I had a horrible... horrible nightmare." I said. I sat there for a few more moments, but then got up and went into the kitchen, pouring myself a glass of milk. I was still overwhelmed by the clarity and realism of that dream. "It was just so... terrifying."

"I may regret asking..." Loki said. "But what happened that made is so frightening?"

"I saw Nikki being killed right in front of my eyes... by something that was invisible." I explained... You could call it an eye opener. That dream made me see that... I don't want the last thing that Nikki remembers about our friendship to be our argument.

"Seems to me like it was telling you that your friendship is going to die."

"I think your right... I really need to make peace with her." I finished my glass of milk, and then walked into my bedroom. I grabbed my cellphone, scrolling through my contact list. When I got to Nikki's name, I hit the call button. I listened to the dial tone, and it then went to her voice mail. Her personal message played.

"Hey, this is Nikki. I can't get to the phone right now, but leave your number and I'll call you back ASAP..." There was a few seconds of silence, and then her voice, which was cheery at first, turned quickly to rage filled ferosity. "Oh! And if this is Alice, don't even call me anymore! I'm not talking to you! You can go to hell for all I care! Goodbye!" The beep sounded saying that I could record my message. It took a few seconds before what Nikki had said to register, but when it did...

"You know what Nikki! Screw you! I can't believe I tried to call and apologize to you! I obviously can't get anything through that thick skull of yours! Our friendship is over! Goodbye and good ridence!"

I left the message and clicked the end button, then threw my phone back onto my dresser.

Any feeling of regret that I had before, any thought of trying to patch things up with Nikki, and any desire to make things right with her is now gone. In a few short sentences she has effectivly ruined any of the friendship we had left. I can't believe I was so blind! She's always been this way. If she doesn't get what she wants, when she wants it, or if things don't go her way she gets mad and throws a hissy-fit. I should have known this was going to happen. I should have predicted that this was going to be the outcome. I never even should have brought her to the house. I should have made her go home and leave her mother deal with her. In any case, she has crossed the line and she can say syonara to our friendship. If she doesn't want to reason with me, and see things from my perspective, then I won't give it a second thought, before I say, I don't even care anymore.

* * *

Ready.

Aim.

Fire!

"Hehehe." I laughed. I was out on the front lawn with my bow, shooting at a distant tree, which I had taped a picture of my so called best friend to. Call me immature if you must, but admit it, you would do the same thing.

"Is this your form of anger management?" Loki had asked, as he walked outside.

"I'd call it target practice." I replied. I walked over to the tree, pulling the arrow out, and then walked back to my starting position.

"Your arrow doesn't look like professional quality."

"It's not." I said. "I didn't have any real arrows, so I had to fashion a makeshift one." It was very crudly made with whatever things I could find in the house. It certainly wouldn't last long, but it was good enough for what I needed it for. "It's called being resorceful."

I pulled the arrow back in the bow, and taking little time to aim, I let it go. "Hehe! Bullseye." I walked over to the arrow once more, it having struck right in the middle of Nikki's forehead on her photo. When I pulled the arrow out of the tree, it's flimsy body snapped it half. Crap. There goes that. I took the other part of it out of the tree. I then went back inside the apartment. Loki had followed after me.

Inside, I threw the broken arrow in the trash. I then sighed. The day wasn't even half over, and I'm already flustered. I still can get over Nikki's message to me. How could she be so childish? Couldn't she see that I was just trying to protect her? I guess I shouldn't even think about it anymore. It's not going to help anything, and it's just gonna irritate my anger even more.

"You know," I said, looking back at Loki. "People are gonna give you really odd looks if they see you dressed like that. If you plan on being outside for any period of time, I'd suggest a wardrobe change."

"Oh? And what would be suitable to blend in with you Midgardians?" He asked.

"Something... Normal." I replied. "Instead of all that metal armor, and leather."

"Very well then."

And... there he goes again with teleporting. I don't even want to know where he's going.

* * *

I sat in the house for a while making myself a bit of lunch, and refilling Shep's food bowl. I then sat watching tv. Not even the comedy shows, that usually have me craking up laughing, could lighten my mood. It's quite sad really. I don't want anything to do with Nikki anymore, and all I can think about is how freakin' angry I am at her. And yet, even with that anger, my mind began reminicing old memories of her and I. We met back in 6th grade, and were best friends ever since. We always used to have such a great time when we hung out together. Whether it being just listening to music, and chatting or going to the mall, it would always turn out to be a fun time. I remember this one time, when I was staying over at her house for the night. We were in her basement, up all night, not even getting tired. We played music, and recorded ourselves singing to it on my I-pod. We both sounded terrible, but it was pretty hilarious. Ha. We even drank pop out of wine glasses and ate Oreos, while talking in English accents 'cause we thought it was cool. We sure were odd... Then the next morning we had to sit and listen to her pet bird, Sammy, make loud obnoxious crys. We kept saying "Sammy shut up!" But he didn't listen. Man that bird had a set of lungs on him. Haha. I swear he didn't understand english... Even with all of these "nice" memories I have, nothing can make me forget what she said. Her few little sentences on that voice mail were all it took. And now... Our friendship is gone forever.

I heard Shep running down the hallway, and he entered the living room, holding his leash in his mouth. I patted his head, taking the leash, and hooking it on his collar. Good, maybe going for a walk would take my mind off of things. As I started walking to the front of the house, Loki teleported back in, and I nearly ran into him.

"Could you give me at least a bit of a warning before you do that next time?" I said to him. Looking at him again, I noticed that he was wearing different, much more normal looking, clothes. He had on a black t-shirt with a green design on the front, along with a basic pair of jeans. "I see you've changed clothes."

"Your midgardian fashion is dramatically different then that of what I'm accostomed." He said.

"Well, at least people wont point and laugh." I replied. Shep tugged on his leash, and then looked back at me, barking, trying to tell me to hurry up.

"Where are you going?" Loki asked.

"Uh... just for a walk. I thought it would clear my head." I answered him. "Um... Would you care to join us?"

I think my question surprised him a bit, because he didn't respond for a few moments. "Sure." He finally said.

I opened the front door, shep darting outside, pulling me behind him. "Shep!" I tugged back on his leash a bit. "Slow down would you?" I then laughed. "You have way to much energy."

The walk was not the normal route that shep and I usually take. Instead of making our way towards the park, we just walked around the block near the house. Just walking in a big circle you could say... or well... a square if you need the geometrically correct term. It was pretty quiet, besides Sheps barking at squirrels, which I had to pull him away from. Shep lead the way most of the time, except for when he began getting tired and walked beside me. For the most part, my mind focus on what was going on around me. I looked around and made observations. I actually never noticed how many tulips were growing in my neighborhood. Many of the yards had flowerbeds outfront and they were all filled with tulips of all colors. There were a bunch of other obvious things that I completly missed, even though I pass by them everyday. It's kind of laughable really. After a while though, I was starting to get tired of the silence, and I took this moment to ask Loki something that i've been wondering about for a while.

"So... Explain something to me." I said to him. "You've been here what... 4 days? And all you've asked me to do is to take archery lessons."

"What is there to explain?"

"Well... Seeing as you have me under... blackmail, I would have assumed that you'd be abusing that right now." I told him. "At least, I know that's what most people would do."

"I'm not like most people."

"Obviously..." I replied. Curiosity seemed to surface in that moment. "Where are you from anyway? You keep saying the word 'Midgardians', and I've never heard anyone use that term before."

"I can't imform you of much, but I come from a place called Asgard."

"Asgard... Sounds like odd place."

Looking in front of me again I stopped in my tracks, staring straight ahead at the person who was standing on the other side of the street. The one person who I didn't want to see. Nikki. We both looked at each other, her expression showing obvious discust. I glared at her, and we shared this gaze for an undeterminded amount of time.

"Turn around." I said to Loki in nearly a wisper. I saw from the corner of my eye that he was about to say something, but I cut him off before he could. "Just turn around." I pulled on Shep's leash, walking him in the opposite direction. I looked back over my shoulder as I walked away, glancing again at Nikki, but then I returned my attention to the path in front of me. I let out a rageful huff.

"...That was quite a standoff you two had." Loki said.

"I thought going for a walk would clear my mind, but no, of course not!" I replied, voicing my thoughts. "I can't believe Nikki has the audacity to show her face after that message she put on her voicemail. And I used to think of her as family. Ha! Well that's not what family is!"

"What exactly is family then?"

I didn't respond right away to his question as it caught me a bit off guard, but I then continued, "Family is the people who care about you, who'll listen and smack some sense into you when you're doing something idiotic. Nikki may have not been my blood family, but I always thought of her as my sister." I said. "But family doesn't turn on you, or continually question your mindset when you say you have things under control. Family will learn to forgive and forget about an argument, but with Nikki, no, she'll drag this on and on because she thinks i'll cave and apologize to her. Hell no! I'm not going to say i'm sorry for something that wasn't even my damn fault!"

In all my ranting, I hadn't realized that we were back at my apartment. I reached in my pocket to grab my key, and then I unlocked the door, walking inside. I quickly let shep off of his leash, and he went and ate some food out of his bowl that he didn't finish. He munched on it noisily.

I sighed. "The rest of my family even loved Nikki." I said continuing my rant, but in a much less hostile tone. "She was always welcomed in with open arms. There was even a point in time when she called my mother, 'mom' instead of 'Ms. Helios.'" I laughed quietly, and then sighed again. "But all that's gone now... Everything's gone." I walked into the living room, sitting down on the couch. Shep came in a moment later, laying down next to me. I idolly stroked his fur, and he cuddled closer to me.

"Your relationship with her sounds quite familiar." Loki chimed in. I had almost forgotten that he was standing there. I looked at him curiously.

"Oh really?" I said. "And how's that?"

"I was in a situation with my Brother, that, while dramatically different, still is fairly similar."

* * *

Loki didn't say much about what he was talking about with his brother. He did say that his brother's name was Thor, and thier fathers name was Odin. He said that things started off good, but as the years progressed, things changed, and not at all for the better.

Loki is like a closed book. The cover has no title, and you have to open that book to find out what's inside. But, You never know what kind of story you would come across. Would it be an action, adventure story? A sad tradgdy? Or a terrifing Horror flick? It's all to hard to tell.

The days hours pasted by, and looking outside, I saw it start to get dark out. Yesterday, Clint said that our lesson for today was going to be at night. I thought that I had better get going before it gets to dark for me to walk to the park. I grabbed my bow, and also took a flashlight from the storage closet, making sure it had batteries.

"Hey, I'm going to a late night archery lesson," I said to Loki. "I'm leaving Shep here."

"You actually trust me to watch your dog?"

"No, it's more I trust him to watch you." I laughed. I looked at Shep. He looked at me, and yawned. "He's tired anyway. He'll probablly just fall asleep." I walked and patted Shep on the head, then turned back, walking out the front door.

**(Temporary 3rd person point of view)**  
When the front door shut, Shep swiftly turned his head, and looked at the man that he was now left with.

Shep still didn't like him. He remembered all too well of how, when he tried to attack this man, a violent shock surged through his canine body, and set him flying across the room. Now, animals are very good at judging people's characters, and from what Shep could see, Loki was very mysterious, and reeked of evil. There was a very strong malicious vibe radiating off of him that shep could almost see floating around his person. Shep was somewhat confused as to why his owner, doesn't seem threatened at all by him. He knew that Alice was an intellegent person, and pondered why she always acted so calmly.

Shep was not scared of Loki, mind you, but he didn't trust him all too well. Shep remembered that night that Alice was crying in the living room. She looked so broken up, and Shep hated seeing his owner so sad. When Loki pulled Alice closer to him, Shep wondered why she didn't move away. Could she not feel the bad vibes that Loki gave off? Did she not notice how sinister his smirks, and laughs were? Or did she just not care? Whatever the case may be, Shep wanted his owner to be safe, and he was determind to do anything he could to make sure of it.

As Sheps stomach growled he looked towards the kitchen. The little bit of food that he had when he came home held him over for a while, but it wasn't enough to fill his belly. Shep stood up, and walked into the kitchen. Nothing was in his food bowl, so he turned to the cabnit where he knew his food was kept. Now, Shep was a smart dog, and he has picked up on many things by watching his owner do them everyday. He pawed at part of the cabnit door, and easily enough got it open. He saw his food on the third shelf from the bottom. He put his paws up on the shelf, standing on his hind legs, and grabbed one of his food cans with his mouth. He returned to the floor, and set his can down. Turning back to the door, he pushed it closed, and it made a quiet click. Nobody would ever know he was in there.

Shep then looked at his can again, and tried to figure out how to open it. He always saw his owner pull on this little tab on the can, and that made the lid pop right off. Shep laid on the kitchen floor, and tried to pull the tab with his teeth. It was very hard to even get a hold on it, and even harder to keep that hold while you pull. Shep tried and tried again, determind to get at the delicious food inside, but in all his efforts he couldn't get the lid off, and it only made his teeth hurt. He dropped his head on the floor between his paws, looking sadly at the can. He really wanted this wet food. His dry food is too bland, and has no flavor anymore, and he had started to hate it. His wet food was much more flavorful and even kept him full longer. His stomach growled again, demanding something to fill it. Shep on had only one choice now. And he knew it. He picked his can up again, and, even though he did not want to, he walked into the living room. He looked at Loki who was sitting on the couch, and then set his food can down on the coushin next to him.

"What?" Loki said to the canine before him. Shep poked his nose at the can, moving it closer to Loki.

Loki looked at Shep, and then looked the can that was next to him. Shep barked at Loki. Even though Shep didn't like him, he was the only on here who could open his food can. Loki picked up the can of food, looking at the label.

"Oh, so you're hungry." The black haired man said. Shep barked again, hoping that Loki would open the can. He watched as Loki got up from the couch, and went into the kitchen with the food. Shep followed behind him and stood by his food bowl. "Very well then." Loki opened the can, and dumped it's contents into Sheps bowl on the floor. The canine happily started eating the food, enjoying every bite of it, while Loki returned to the living room.

Shep soon enough finished his food, licking the bowl clean, and then took a drink from his water bowl. He yawned as he finished drinking. He was quite worn out from the walk, and decided to go lay down. He returned to the living room, and for a moment he just stood there. After that moment, Shep jumped onto the couch, curling up in the corner. Loki was on the other side, watching whatever was on TV at the time. Shep started drifting to sleep.

While he was half asleep, Shep felt something brush against his head. He moved a bit to try and shake it off, but to no luck. Whatever it is was petting him slowly, and then scratched behind his ear. Shep opened his eyes, and saw that Loki had moved over, and was sitting next to him now. Shep didn't move for a moment, but then Loki scratched behind his ears again. All dogs love being scratched behind the ears, and Shep is no exception. The scratch felt good, and he let Loki continue, while Shep wagged his short little tail.

"For a midgardian canine," Loki said, looking at Shep. "You're not all that bad."

* * *

**(Back to regular POV)**  
When I arrived at the park enterence, Clint was standing and waiting for me.

"Ready for the night lesson?" He asked.

"Absolutly." I replied. "But, may I ask why were having a lesson at night? Won't it be harder to shoot in the dark?"

"It will yes, but if you can master your aim in limited light, then you'll be just one step away from mastery."

I smiled at his words. I never imagined that I would come this far really. I just thought, 'i'll take a few lessons, and maybe improve my aim a bit.' But listening to all Clint's compliments and hearing him say how fast I progressed is just amazing.

I followed Clint to a spot in the park. It was quite dark outside, and the trees blocked most of the moonlight.

"Alright. There are four targets out here." He said as he pointed to the targets, while I turned following where he was pointing. "I want you to try and shoot them, and see how close you get to the bullseye."

"Sounds... easy enough." I said. Even though with the darkness, it probablly wouldn't be as easy as it sounded. There was a bucket of arrows. I followed Clint intructions, and started shooting at the targets. I took a bit more time aiming then I would usually because of the darkness. I couldn't tell if the arrow landing in the center or not, but I continued and moved on to the next target.

When I had shot all the targets, Clint and I walked over to see how I did. Target one had an arrow stuck in the nine point area, but it was just a few inches or so off of the bullseye. Target two was nearly the same as the first. Target three, got a bit closer and was just centimeters off. And then, Target four the arrow had struck right in the center. I was filled with joy. We repeated this again. And like Clint had expected, I hit the bullseye on two of the targets. I started getting even more joyous, and excited. After a few more repeated trials of that, Clint walked over and handed me what looked to be a pair of swimming goggles, but the lenses were completly blacked out.

"What am I supposed to do with these?" I asked.

"Put them on, and repeat what you've been doing."

"But, if I put these on, I won't be able to see." I said. "I wont know where the targets are."

"But you do know." He replied. "You've been shooting at them repeataly, and your mind knows where they are. You just have to trust you mind, and let it guide you."

"Well... Alright." I said, once again questioning his unusual teaching methods. "Just... stay behind me... I don't want to accidentally hit you." I put the goggle on, and everything went pitch black. I couldn't see a thing.

"Don't worry about me, focus on the targets and the targets only."

"...Okay, you're the instructer." I replied.

I know that I'm facing one of the targets, because I haven't moved since the last time. I grabbed an arrow from the bucket at my feet, and drew it back in the bow. I don't even know where I was aiming, but I let the arrow go. I heard it hit... something. I don't know if it was the target or not. I continued this with the remaining three targets, not even sure if I was aiming in the right direction... I probablly hit a tree or shot the arrows off into nowhere. After I finished shooting, I quickly took off those goggles.

"You know, these things really hurt around the eyes." I said to Clint. He mearly laughed, and motioned me to follow him to check out the targets. We walked to target one...

"...What?" Was all I could say. I stared in amazement. The arrow I shot... without knowing where I was aiming... was right on the bullseye... "H... How did? I... I don't even..."

"See," Clint said. "Your mind knows where to aim. You just have to trust it."

My amazement was brought to new levels when I saw the other targets were just like the first.

"Clint, you must be the most amazing teacher ever. Like, seriously." I said to him, giving him a hug.

"Part of it was you." He said. "You're a natural."

"You don't even know how happy I am right now." I let go of him. It was really late, and very dark. I knew I needed to get home soon.

Clint and I said good bye to each other after he told me to meet him for one more lesson tomarrow. I turned on my flashlight and started my walk home.

It was so silent at night. The only sounds you could hear were the chirping of the crickets and maybe the noise of a distance car driving on the street. Looking up at the sky I saw the overcasting clouds cover the moon. The wind started picking up as well. Seems like a storm front is coming it. I picked up my pace, so I didn't get caught out in the rain.

* * *

When I arrived home, it had just began to sprinkle outside, and thunder could be heard a few miles away. From the sound of it, I would say this storm is going to be pretty big. I unlocked the front door, and walked inside. I put down my things, and turned off my flashlight. I noticed the TV was on, the light of it shining on the wall. I set the flashlight on the counter, and started walking to the other room. It was pretty late, and glancing at the clock on the wall, I realized it was nearly midnight. When I got to the living room, all I could say was "Aww"

Shep was laying at one end of the couch, curled up in his usual position. The adorable part was that Loki was laying down using Shep like a pillow. I smiled, and quickly went to my room, grabbing my camera out of my dresser. Going back to the other room, I turned the camera on, and set it for low lighting. I snapped a quick picture, smiling again, and then went back to my room, uploading the file to my laptop. With the file saved, I shut my laptop and, after changing clothes, layed down for a good night's sleep.

* * *

**(Temporary 3rd person POV)**  
Back at the park, Clint got a call, and was talking on a cellphone.

"How was the training session?" The contact on the other line asked Clint.

"Went perfectly." Clint replied.

"Wonderful. Do you think you need more time with the trainee?"

"...No. I don't."

"You really think that they're ready?" Asked the contact.

"Oh, she's ready. She's more then ready."

* * *

**Things just got real. 0_0**  
**I have a feeling people are gonna start hating on Nikki after reading this... **

**Loki got stuck Dog-sitting! Loki, you are too adorable for your own good. You know you love that dog. Don't deny it!**

**Sorry if the third person POV's were confusing in any way. I normally only writing in first person so when I switch it's a bit hard to adapt to the POV change. I didn't plan of having the part where Loki was dog-sitting, but the idea came to me and I just had to run with it. I think it was quite cute.**

**PLEASE Leave me a comment, and tell me what you think. I live of your opinions, and I love reading everyone reactions!**


	8. Chapter: Surprise?

**Chapter 8. THIS is where the real action begins.**

* * *

"Mom!" I said answering my phone. I was in my room using my laptop, while shep chewed on one of his dog toys. It was about noon, and getting a call from my mom was a pleasent surprise. "How are you!"

"I'm good honey." She replied. "I just called to ask if you'd like to come over for dinner this afternoon."

"I'm always up for some of your home cooking." I replied. "What time you want me to come over?"

"How about 3? I'll even pick you up!"

"Haha. Sounds good then!" I happily agreed.

"See you then, Hon!"

"Bye mom. Love you." I hung up the phone. I haven't had a nice warm homecooked dinner in such a long time. I could cook yes, but nothing compares to the taste of a meal made by mother.

* * *

Three o clock came around and my mother was in the parking lot of my apartment not a moment late. I looked out my window and waved to her, then went to the front door. Loki seemed to have vanished again. He's been doing that more and more often now that I think about it. But anyways, I opened the front door, letting my mom in. Shep knew someone was at the door, and came running down the hallway. When my mom saw him, she bent down to the floor, and petted his head, scratching behind his ears.

"What's for dinner?" I asked.

"Oh, you'll see when we get there. I have a whole meal planned!" My mom replied. She stood back up from the floor, and then continued. "Are you going to bring Shep with you? We have some brand new dog treats at the house."

At the sound of word 'treat' Shep looked up at my mom with an excited expression, his tounge hanging out of his mouth. I laughed at him.

"Sure." I agreed.

I grabbed my house key, and we walked outside, while I locked my door. I opened the back passenger door of my moms car and Shep quickly jumped in. I shut the door, getting in the front seat. My mom got in, and we headed off towards he house.

When we arrived at her home across town I noticed a very excited looking smile on my moms face.

"Haha. You seem happy today." I said.

"Oh, I am." Her expression showed obvious joy. But this joy seemed off for some reason. "Come on! Come! Let's go inside!"

We walked up to the front door, Shep following closely behind us.

My mom rung the doorbell when she got to the porch.

"Why'd you ring the doorbell?" I asked, while laughing. "It's your house."

She didn't respond, but then motioned for me to walk inside first. I opened the front door to be greeted by,

_**"SURPRISE!**_" The yells of my family members roared through the house, leaving me with a very surprised look at the unexpected sounds. The house was decorated with balloons and there was a banner across the length of the wall which said "Happy birthday!"

"Oh My Gosh!" I said. "You guys! My birthday isn't for another two weeks!"

"That's what makes it a surprise!" My mother said, walking in front of me.

I walked further into the house being greeted with hellos, and hugs from my aunt, uncle, grandpa, grandma, and my little cousins a few close family friends were there as well. One of my cousins, Emily, ran up to me, and handed me a crown. It was a simple plastic crown that I've seen her use when she played dress-up, but she added some craft gems and even spelled out my name in little stick on jewels.

"Here, Alice!" She said excitedly. "It's your birthday crown! I had my mommy spray paint it gold for you!"

"Oh, how pretty!" I replied, taking it from her. "Thank you."

"Put it on!"

"Haha! Alright." I put the crown on, which put a big smile of Emily's face.

My surprise party went on as any birthday party would. There was much talk and chit-chat. We all ate. My mother wasn't kidding when she had a whole meal planned. There was more then enough food for everyone, and I'm pretty certain that everyone would be going home with some of the leftovers. Shep went up to each person in the house and gave them the sad puppy dog eyes. Everyone gave him something from their plates. And whatever food was dropped was quickly cleaned up by Shep. I swear he ate enough to last him the rest of the week. After we ate my mom brought out the cake that she had baked. There were 19 candles around the border of the cake. The writing on it made me laugh. It said "Do all these candles make you feel old yet?" I thanked my mom for it, giving her a hug. She then went and started to cut it. She gave me the first piece... which my uncle had to snatch and then shove in my face.

"Uncle Joe!" I shouted, and then hit him on the arm, all the while everyone, including me, was laughing their heads off. "You do that every year!"

"And you fall for it ever year!"

I continued laughing, while I grabbed a napkin, and started wiping the frosting off my face. My mom told me that there were some washclothes in the bathroom. I nodded in reply and then walked down the hallway. In the bathroom I found the washclothes, and grabbed one of them. I ran it under some warm water, and washed off my face.

The rest of the party went great. Shep got his treats that my mom promised him, and he enjoyed each and every one of them. He ran around the house, getting attention from everyone. My cousins loved playing with him, and they even went in the backyard, playing fetch. Shep really enjoyed interacting with the younger kids, and kids loved being with him as well. There was much laughter and fun going on. My mother had told me that she had a big surprise for me on my real birthday. It made me very curious and I kept pestering her to give me a hint, but she would not even do that. She kept her lips sealed.

I went around asking a my family member if they knew anything about what the surprise was. They all said they knew what it was, but no matter what I did none of them would let me in on even a tiny peice of information.

"Oh come on!" I said talking to my uncle Joe. "You always give me the four one one!"

"Not this time."

"But-"

"Nope! Your just gonna have to wait!" He replied while laughing.

My mother approched me as she came out of the house. She was the hostess and certainly was busy with all the food clean up and washing dishes.

"I heard you were taking Archery lessons again, honey." She said.

"Yeah. How'd you find out?" I asked. I know I hadn't told her about it.

"Your friend Nikki called me a few days ago. She told me."

"Oh."

"I called to invite her to the party, but she didn't answer."

"Well... She's kind of mad at me right now." I informed my mom.

"Oh? Why's that?" She asked.

"We... had a bit of a falling out." I said. "We're... not on very good terms with one another right now."

"Awww. I'm sorry Alice."

"...Don't worry about it." I replied, trying to shift the subject away from Nikki. "I'm sure we'll patch things up. It's all just a matter of time." Before my mom could say anything else, a family friend of ours, David walked over to us.

"Alice!" He started, nearly shouting my name. "We all heard of how you've been taking archery lessons!" I looked at my mom, and she just winked at me. Ha. Leave it to her to tell everyone. David then continued. "We all would love to see what you can do!" He then turned around and shouted to the rest of the people in the backyard. "Yo! Raise your hand if you want to see Alice show off her bow and arrow skills!" Everyone's hand shot up in the air, and they all shouted various replys. "Yeah!" "Totally!" "Hell yes!"

I smiled and laughed. "But, I don't have my things with me." I said to David.

"Oh sure you do!" My mom said. "I still have your old bow from all those years ago. It still in great condition. It's nearly as good as new."

"And!" David added. "When I heard of you taking lessons, I went out and bought you some brand new arrows. Their in my trunk. Let me go get them for you!" He ran off around the house, through the back gate, heading to his car.

"Well." I smiling again. "I guess that settles it."

"You bow is in the basement." My mom said. "I'll go fetch it for you!" She turned to walk into the house, but I grabbed her shirt sleave, stopping her.

"No, no! Let me get it. You've done so much already, mom."

"Haha! Alright! It's on the top shelf next to the box of christmas lights."

"Thanks." I replied. I then headed into the house through the back patio door, and walked to the staircase which lead to the basement. I desended down the steps and the turned the lights on. The box of christmas lights was sitting there on a shelf in the back right corner, labled in very neat handwritting with a black sharpie. I could clearly see a bow next to it. I walked over to the shelf, having to stand on the tips of my toes to reach the top of it, and grabbed the bow.

"Wow. This brings back memories." I thought to myself, as I looked at the bow. Bright orange at the top and bottom, but then gradiented into lime green in the middle. When I took the lessons all those years ago we got to pick from an assortment of colors. I still remember my first archery lesson. My instructor was Ms. Hampton. Hehe. Always concured with my aim, but even dispite that she always said to me that I had the most potentiel out of the whole class, which was a good 15-20 students. Being young, you can only imagine what that did to my ego. I smiled, and then turned around to go back outside.

As I turned around, I accidently kicked something on the floor. I looked down and saw a box. On the top, in green sharpie was the words, Alice's Pictures. Out of curiousity I bent down and opened the box, laying the bow down on the floor. The box was full of loose pictures and photo albums. The first photo I saw was one of me when I was three. There were many other pictures of all sorts. From infant photos, to my high school graduation. There was even a photo of Shep and I. It was a few years after I got him. We were both asleep, and I was using Shep as a pillow. Ha. It reminded me of the other night, with Loki sleeping on the couch, his head on top of Shep. I found one picture that grabbed my attention. I picked it up, taking it out of the box. I sat there on the floor for a few moments just staring at it. It was an old photo of Nikki and I. Around the time when we first became friends. In the photo we were laughing with the happiest grins on our faces. I stared at the picture a few moments longer, and then put it in my pocket.

"Alice?" I heard the call of David echo down the stairs. He came down. "What ya doing?"

"Just... uh. Remincing some old memories." I closed the box of photos, and grabbed my bow, standing up from the floor.

"Well come on!" David said. "I got the arrows, and were all waiting."

"Haha. I won't keep you waiting any longer then." I replied. We walked back upstairs and out the door to the backyard. Everyone had removed themselves from the yarn and were standing on the porch. My cousins Emily and Zach came up to me, saying that they taped a target to the tree in the yarn. I walked out into the yard, seeing a peice of paper with a red and white target drawn on it, colored with crayons. They every wrote numbers on the rings. Shep ran down the porch holding a long rectangular box in his mouth. I took the box from him, seeing arrows through the clear plastic. I opened the box, pulling out one of the arrows. They were black with shiny silver heads. "Thanks buddy." I said to my canine pal. Shep ran back to the porch, and then my mom called to me.

"Show us what you got!" She said. Everyone one else followed her call, and then they started chanting my name. "Al-ice! Al-ice! Al-ice!"

I smiled, and then looked at the target. I pulled the arrow back in the bow, everyone still cheering me on. I waited a few moments, and then let go. The arrow zoomed through the air and landed right on the center of the paper target.

"BULLSEYE!" I heard everyone shout. They told me keep going, so I did.

I took another arrow from the box and drew it back, taking less time to aim the before. This arrow flew and once again got right in the center. More cheers erupted from the porch.

"Can you shoot with your eyes closed!" David called.

My mother looked at him. "Oh, no. I don't think that's a good idea."

I walked over to the porch so I wouldn't have to yell across the yard. "Actually mom. Haha. I can."

"See!" David said. "Let her do it."

"Oh alright." My mom agreed with a smile.

I returned to the spot in the yarn front where I was shooting. I took the last arrow from the box, while everyone got real quiet. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, while I pulled the arrow back. "You mind knows where to aim." Clint's words echoed in my head reminding me that I was capable of this. "You just have to trust your mind and let it guide you."

"Trust your mind." I said quietly to myself. I held the arrow for a few more moments. "And let it guide you!" I let go of the arrow, seconds later hearing it hit something. The sound of triumphant cheers followed. The noise was almost comparable to the yells of fans at a major sporting event. I opened my eyes, seeing the Arrow on the target right next to the previous two. A smile formed on my face and everyone elses.

I walked to the tree, grabbing the arrows, and placing them back in their box. I then returned to the porch.

David put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me into a hug. "All hail Alice! Queen of archery!" He said. The "queen" part probablly came from Emilys crown. "Huzzah!" Everyone else repeated David. "Huzzah!"

When we all went back inside, we decided to have a little family fun, and play one of our favorite card games. Screw your neighbor. Don't let it's name fool you. It's a fun family friendly game. Even kids can play. The rules are simple. everyone gets delt one card from a standard deck, and is also given three quarters. The object is to get the highest card you can. Aces are considered as the lowest and kings are the highest. The player to the left of the dealer looks at their card and, if it's a high card, then they can choose to keep it. If it's low, like say a 6, they can opt to trade it with the person to their left. Once you trade, that is the card you stick with. If someone wants to trade, you have to exchange cards. You can't say no, unless you have a king. In that case you can flip the card and make the other player keep theirs. When the trades finish everyone flips the cards and the person with the lowest card has to put a quarter in the middle. Once you lose your three quarters, you are out for the rest of the game. The last person who still has quarters at the end is the winner. My mom dealt the cards, while we began the game. It was fun watching everyones "poker faces" and expression when they got stuck with a low card.

During the middle of the game the doorbell rang. My mom looked surprised, like she wasn't expecting any more guests. Nonetheless she excused herself from the table while we continued with the game. After a few minutes she came back in the room. "Alice, there is someone here for you. Says they're a friend of yours?"

"Nikki?" I asked.

"No." She replied. "I'm not sure who he is."

I was confused, and curious all at the same time, so I got up from the table. Before I left the room I looked at david who was the one sitting next to me, and the one I was trading cards with. "Don't look at my card." I said. He laughed and I did too. I then turned around and continued to the front door. Walking down the hallway into the front room, I could only stop and stare at the person who was standing in the front doorway.

"Loki?" He grinned when he looked towards me. "What are you doing here? How'd you know where my moms house was?" He laughed quietly and walked closer.

"A Golden crown. A little ostentatious don't you think."

"My cousin gave it to me." I said. "Again... What are you doing here?"

"What? I can't... drop in on your surprise party?"

"But, how did..." I sighed. "You know what, nevermind. I don't even wanna know... But really, you need to go."

"I get the feeling you don't want me here."

"Well, I'd much rather not explain you to my entire family." I said. "I know not of what they would say."

"Well then what better way to find out." Loki said with a smirk.

From the other room I heard someone call my name. I then identified the voice to belong to my uncle Joe. "Hey Alice!" he called. "Come on! It's your turn!"

"Be there in a second!" I called back. I faced Loki again, silence hanging in the air for a few moments. "You're not gonna leave are you?"

His quiet laugh stated his answer. No. He wasn't leaving. Damn. I sighed again.

"Fine." I said. "But, if you try to hurt any of my family... I'll kill you."

"Hehe. Sure." He obviously wasn't threatened by my statement.

I turned and walked back down the hallway, only assuming that Loki was following me. When I got into the other room, David was the one who spoke first.

"Who's your friend, Alice?" He said. "Does he know how to play cards?"

I was about to say... something, but Loki spoke before I could. "Certainly."

"Ah! Then sit down!" David said. "The more players, the more fun!"

I just sighed again, and returned to my seat. David got up from his chair. "Here, take my seat. I'll move."

Loki walked around the table, taking David's seat next to me.

"We didn't catch your name." My mom said. "What is it?"

"Loki."

"Oh! That is quite an interesting name!" My mom replied. "Very different." She then started pointing around the table, introducing everybody, starting with uncle Joe, and ending with herself. "And the one who gave you his seat is David. He's a close family friend of ours." She finished.

"I like your hair!" Emily said.

"Are you Alice's boyfriend?" My cousin zach asked. At that question I dropped my head to the table, coving it with my arms.

"Oh God." Was all I could say. Leave it to little cousins to say something like that...

I heard Loki laugh before he responded. "Hehe. No, dear boy. I'd say we're friends at best."

"But you're a boy!" Emily added. "And you're her friend-"

"Yeah! So that makes you her boyfriend!" Zach said finishing Emily's statement.

Loki laughed again at the both of them. "Well, when you apply that logic I guess you are correct." He said. "Wouldn't you agree, Alice?"

Before I said anything I heard David's voice from behind me. "Alright!" He called, having re-entered the room with another chair. I lifted my head off the table. Talk about being saved by the bell. Thank you, David. He walked around the table sitting down next to my mom. "Game on!"

"Let me have the cards." My mom said to everyone. "We'll start again so we can include our new player." Everyone passed the cards back to her, and she re-shuffled the deck.

"You know how to play this game?" David asked Loki.

"What is it that you're playing?"

"Screw your neighbor."

Loki stiffled a laugh. "I don't think I've heard of that one."

"Oh! Well it's real simple!" David and everyone else (but mostly David) briefly explained the game to Loki, hitting the high points and all of the most imporatant information. He was also given three quarters.

"Sounds simple enough." Loki said after hearing the explaination.

"Alright!" My mom said joyfully. "Let's play!" She delt the cards to everyone, and then placed the remainder of the deck in front of her. My uncle Joe was first in the line up. He opted to keep his card, but aunt Kate traded hers with cousin Zach. He looked at the card and just shook his head, passing it on to me. I gave him the card I had and looked at the new card. It was the 4 of diamonds. Definitely don't want that. I passed the card to loki, taking his card... which wasn't much better, being the 6 of spades. That 4 went all the way around the table to David. He opted to switch it with the top card of the deck, and got the 8 of clubs. "Now, flip em'!" My mom said. Everyone flipped their cards to the middle of the table. She looked at all the cards for a moment... "6 of spades loses. Put in a quarter Alice."

"Ah man." I said, tossing a quarter to the center of the table.

This game continued on, and, as surprising... or unsurprising as it may seem, me and Loki were the last two players. Everyone else was out from losing their three quarters. I had one quarter left, while Loki somehow still had all three. My mom delt the cards out, mine being the ace of hearts. I traded with Loki. He obviously didn't want the card and switched with the deck getting the 10 of clubs. I flipped my card, showing the jack of diamonds.

"Ah!" David say from across the table. "You pay, man." Loki put his quarter in the pile.

The next round went nearly exactly the same as the last, except this time I had a nine, which Loki ended up with a 5.

"Oh! It's all comes down to this!" My mom stated. "Whoever wins this round, wins it all!"

"The cards were delt. I had a measly two which I was not about to keep. I pushed the card over to Loki.

"You sure about that?" He said.

"Uh... Yeah!" I replied.

"Are you really?"

"Oh, Alice he's bluffin' ya!" uncle Joe said.

"This isn't the world poker tour. There are no bluffs." I said.

"There's nothing in the rules against it." David added.

I looked at Loki, pushing the card closer to him. "Trade."

"Do you really-"

"Yes! Now give me the card!"

"Fine." He traded cards with me, but he didn't pick up his new card to look at it. "You can have it." I looked at my new card..

"Crap!" I shouted when I saw the vaule of the card.

"Oh! Whatcha got!" My mom asked.

I didn't reply, but flipped my card over. Loki showed his.

"Woah!" David nearly shouted. "Looks like the newcomer is the winner!"

* * *

After the party was over, which wasn't until about 9-O-clock, everyone started leaving. I gave them hugs good bye. When Emily had to go home with aunt Kate, I went to give her back the crown.

"No, no! You keep it!" She said. "It's yours now!"

"Haha! Alright then. Thank you." I said with a smile. More people left, and soon there was only Shep, David, Loki and I remaining.

"Come on dear, I'll take you home." My mom said. "Does your friend need a ride?"

"Oh, no, thank you." Loki replied. "I have my own transportation."

Loki left out the front door... I could only guess that he would be teleporting like always. My mom and I went out, while David followed behind. He got in his car, which was in front of my moms, blocking us in, and drove out of the driveway, down the street. I hopped in the passenger seat of moms car while Shep jumped and quickly layed down taking up the whole back seat. We left, heading back to my apartment.

"So." Mom said to me while she drove. "That friend of yours." She stopped for a moment. "He seems nice."

"He's just a friend mother." I replied, already knowing where this conversation was going. "Nothing more than that."

"Oh Alice, honey, you don't have to hide anything from me." She said. "Besides, I think he likes you too."

"Ha! How do you figure that."

"Just a bit of mothers intuition." She replied, winking at me.

The rest of the car ride was pretty much silent. When we got to my apartment, I hugged my mom goodbye, thanking her again for all she had done today, and then got out of the car. I let Shep out, and my mom backed out of the parking lot. I waved to her, and when she drove down the street I went inside.

Shep went inside, walking into the living room, and flopping down on a pillow that was on the floor.

"Hehe. Yeah, you should be tired from all that runnin' around you did today." I said. I yawned, even though I wasn't tired at all. In the living room, I sat down on the couch, and grabbed the TV remote. I went to the on demand section searching through the movies. "Hum... where is that one movie that I like..." I was looking for a specific movie, but I didn't know the name of it. I never paid any attention to the name, I just watched it. I was reading the little movie descriptions to see if anything sounded familiar. After searching a few minutes I just gave up, and just started flicking through channels.

"You seemed to enjoy youself at the party today." I heard behind me.

"Yeah, and you seemed to rather enjoy crashing it."

"I did not cause any trouble."

"I beg to differ." I replied.

"Oh? Explain youself."

"Well for one, you were purposely trying to embaress me in front of everyone." I said. "And two, I know you cheated when we were playing cards. That's not right, you know."

"Cheat? I did no such thing." Loki said.

"Don't try and weasel your way out of it! I saw what you did when you tried to bluff me."

"And what was that exactly?"

"You cover the card with your hand, while you rubbed the top right corner in a counter-clockwise motion." I stated. "Plus, I was counting cards. All four aces had already been played. It would have been impossible for you to get one without cheating, which I'm guessing you used some sort of magic to do it."

"Hehe, You are much more observant then I thought you to be." He sat down on the other side of the couch.

"One question still stands, How did you even know where my mother lived? How'd you know I was gonna be there?"

"I have my ways of obtaining information."

"Yeah that doesn't sound creepy at all." I laughed. I returned my attention to the TV, finally finding a channel to watch. Nothing good was on right now except for game shows.

"You family is rather... interesting. Though I noticed a certain member failed to make an appearence."

"If you're speaking of my father, then yes you are correct." I said.

"Was he not invited?"

I sighed. "I never knew my father." I replied. "He uh... He left my mom before I was born. Last I heard he was somewhere is wisconson." I looked down at the floor. "But it doesn't even matter, because mom said he was a jerk. He's known of me, but he doesn't even care. I'm better off without him anyways."

The rest of the night was quiet. I watched a few game shows and a couple comedy shows. In the middle of one of the commercials a loud, screeching noise blared though the house. The noise scared Shep and he jumped at the sound.

"What the devil is that!" Loki said, covering his ears.

"I.. I think I know." I got up from the couch, and started walking down the hallway. I cover my ears, because the noise got louder. Yep. It's exactly what I thought. I went into my room, and looked at my labtop which was sitting on my nightstand. I quickly hit the mute key on the keyboard and the noise halted.

"Uggh. I think I've gone deaf in one ear." Loki said entering the room. "What is heavens name was that atrocity?"

"My laptop. I coded a sort of 'alarm system' that lets me know when things go wrong." I said. "I've never heard it go so loud before." I typed in my password, unlocking the computer. Instead of the home screen with all of my icons and customized wallpaper, the screen was black with strings of coding running across it in green text. Other boxes started popping up and more coding was run into those. "The hell..." I looked at the codes that were appearing. "Someone is hacking into my files..."

"I do hope that you have nothing of great importance on there."

"...My life is on this laptop. I'd call it important." I examined the codes again, trying to see how they were doing it. I don't like to admit it much, but I'm a bit of a computer geek. "It looks like they're bypassing my firewall, and entering the files through an obscure hole, which allowed them into to see everything. Though one good thing is that I password protected a lot of the files and encrypted them. So that'll slow them down a bit... They must be using some sort of advanced program. I've never seen hacking done this fast before."

"Do you have a way to stop it?"

"Oh, Loki. I hope so." I answered. I started hitting keys, trying to counter and block them from getting any further into the hard-drive. I quickly got frustrated with it. No matter what I did, no matter what blocks and walls I put up to stop them, they kept finding ways around it. "Damn it!" I continued typing in more codes, trying to prevent them from getting at the important files. "Wait! I've got it." I quickly typed in a specific code, hitting the enter key. A few moments went by and then all the codes of the screen were erased, and the words "Program terminated" flashed. "Yes! Thank god it worked." My computer quickly re-booted itself, and when it came up with my home screen, I went and checked to see if everything was okey. "Hmm... Looks like everything is intact. Nothing was deleted. Though I can't be sure if they copied anything or not..." I shut the laptop off and closed it.

"A bit of a computer nerd are you?"

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh if you want, but just laugh in the guest bedroom. I'm going to bed."

* * *

That next afternoon I was using my computer, looking at all the photos my mom and other family members had taken during the party yesterday, and had posted on their Facebook accounts. As I looked through them, I saved all of the best ones to a file on my computer. There were some great shots of the family having fun, and the kids running around with Shep. There was an over-abundence of picture from when I was shooting the bow at the backyard tree. Someone must have also recorded it because there was even some videos posted... which surprising to me had a lot more views and comments then I thought they would get. There were was even some photos from when we were all playing cards. I didn't even know anyone was taking pictures at that point. Loki was in a few of the pictures, and when I looked at the "tagged" list, they labled him as "Loki - Alice's boyfriend."

"And, now it's on the internet... way to go family..." I'm just glad that Loki did his disapeering act again and wasn't here to see it.

I then heard Shep barking and the front door was opened forcablly. Shep ran into my room, standing next to the bed, and growling in the direction of the door. Not even 3 seconds later these random people swarmed into my room. One of them quickly snatched my laptop, while another grabbed me, pulling me off my bed, and put me in handcuffs.

"What the hell is this!" I yelled. "Who are you people!"

"We are agents of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division." One of them said. "We have direct orders to find, and transfer you back to headquarters."

"The who?" I said in confusion, still shouting. "What is this madness!"

I tried to get away from the person who was holding me, but could not escape their hold. Shep was growling at the people and running around the room. They backed him up into a corner. Shep took a defensive stance, his teeth barred and showing that he was ready to attack if he had too.

"Someone get the dog!" I heard one of them say.

"NO!" I yelled. "Leave him alo-" Before I could finished, someone tied a cloth around my mouth, muffling my yells, and then that was quickly followed with a blindfold.

I continued to try and get away from these people, but had no luck. They dragged me through my house and then outside. They shoved me into what I could only guess was a large vehicle. I heard a door slam and then the vehicle started moving a few moments later. It felt like it was rising up in the air. From the sound of it, I think it was a helicopter. This all happened so fast that I could barely take in what had just happened. While in that helicopter I tried again to free myself from the hand cuffs, but could not break free from them. I growled in annoyence, only to have it muffled. Grah! What the eff is happening! This is an outrage! You can't just storm into a persons house, and take them hostage! This is madness! When I get out of these restraints, I have a few choice words for these people!

I don't even know how long I was sitting in that helicopter, or whatever it was, but I heard it land and then people once again started pushing me and making me walk in the direction they wanted me to go. I had no clue where I was, where I was walking too, or what was even going on. After they walked me to wherever they wanted me, they made me sit down in a chair. One of them removed my blindfold. In front of me, across a table, was a bald man, who had an eyepatch over his left eye. Behind him stood more people. The person behind me removed the hand-cuffs, and the cloth around my mouth. I stared for a moment at one person in particular behind the man with the eyepatch.

"...Clint?"

"Hello again, Alice."

* * *

**0_0 My loki! This was the longest chapter so far... And it was so much fun to write. I rather enjoyed this one. Sorry for not getting it out sooner!**

LOL. I imagined Alice's Birthday crown looking like Price Hal's Crown from The Hollow Crown (In which Tom Hiddleston did a freakin' amazing job acting in it. God, I love him XD)

I would think that Loki would be quite the card shark!  
And yes, the game I described is a real game. My family and I play it a lot during holidays and get - togethers

After much thought, I've decided on going for a Loki X Alice paring, which is why her family kept referring to him as her boyfriend XD

Please let me know what you think! I need your opinions to survive. Please leave me a comment, I live of your feedback!


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